


Value of Scrap

by rage_quitter



Series: Aurora and Mikris (and friends!) [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Fallen, First Meetings, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2019-10-15 05:25:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17522723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rage_quitter/pseuds/rage_quitter
Summary: Mikris, a nobody, a Marauder, a dispensable underling, might have just made the most unlikely and powerful friend in the universe.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> [chanting] OCs! OCs! OCs!  
> This takes place as an alternative to the Thief of Thieves adventure on Titan, with my Hunter Aurora-11. It's not super romantic or anything, but maybe i'll post a sequel or something?  
> (ps Aurora's Ghost is named Saffron and has a lady voice!)

Mikris didn’t know what her Captain wanted these things for. She didn’t even know what they were. 

What she did know was that this little metal object wasn’t worth it, though, clearly, as she hunched, terrified, rasping for breath, watching a Guardian storm through gunning down her crewmates. 

She gripped her blades tighter.

The Guardian reloaded its gun and scanned the area. 

Mikris felt a cold jolt of terror as its helmet landed on her.

She backed up, looking for cover, for a place to hide, somewhere, anywhere--

Before she could, it was mantling up onto the platform and raising its gun.

Mikris yelped and covered her head. “Wait, wait, please!” she begged.

The Guardian… hesitated.

She blinked at it, hardly daring to breathe, stunned, amazed--was it sparing her?

She didn’t care if she’d be docked for this. This piece of junk wasn’t worth a dozen lives! She sheathed a blade and grabbed the thing she’d stolen from the human cache. She held it out to the Guardian, keeping an otherwise careful distance, hunched over. “Here, take it, just please don’t kill me.”

The Guardian lowered its gun. Slowly it reached forward and took the thing. It looked at it and then back at her. It asked her something in its language. 

Mikris stared at it in confusion. 

It made a slightly annoyed sound and said something else. 

Its tiny drone appeared beside it.

Mikris took a small step back, staring with wide eyes. She’d never been this close to one of them--what were they called? Ghosts? It was… actually very pretty to look at it. 

“Thank you?” the Ghost said in Eliksni, a somewhat decent imitation. 

Mikris straightened with a surprised chirp. 

The Guardian said something. The Ghost’s pointed bits twitched before it spoke again. “Why are you giving this back?”

She eyed the thing in the Guardian’s hand. “I don’t know why they wanted me to take it in the first place. I don’t know what it is. I just don’t want to die.”

The Ghost spoke in human-speak, probably translating. The Guardian glanced down at its weapon. Before Mikris could jump in fear again, it holstered the gun and said something.

“Sorry,” the Ghost translated. “These are tools. We need them to fix the rig.”

“Oh,” she murmured. “That makes sense.” She growled softly. “Why did they want us to steal them? Isn’t it smarter if anyone fixes this sinking chunk of metal before we all drown? It doesn’t matter who does it.”

The Guardian laughed a little dryly as the Ghost translated. It nodded its head--was that agreement? “Why do you listen to them when they tell you things like that? To steal things when you don’t know what they are?”

Mikris curled her lower arms a little closer. “What other option do we have?” she said. “Don’t you all know this? It’s listen or die, or be docked. We may not cap anymore, may not ritually dock, but it still hurts. At least I can lie now… it may save me my arms.”

The Guardian made a soft sound that seemed almost… sympathetic, maybe? “Sorry to hear that. Is there any way we can help?”

Mikris angled her head. “Why?”

“Why not?”

“Aren’t we enemies? You were just about to kill me.”

The Guardian winced. “Sorry,” the Ghost said again. “But we can make up for it, right? We just want to get the supplies back.”

She hesitated.

Mikris contemplated far more seriously than she should. 

Maybe… maybe the Guardian could help.

Her Captain. He was a menace. A Devil in every sense of the word. She didn’t know what was wrong with the Devils, but they were nearly animals half the time. Worse than, really. Her status as a former King kept her fairly safe for now, but it was only a matter of time. She would love to sink her blades into his flesh, make him bleed and suffer for what he had done to her.

But if he were to die, by hand of Guardian… well, no one could blame a little Marauder. 

And she knew the other Captain who would take her in, a grizzled older Wolf once loyal to the Awoken. Intelligent, and had always shown a reluctance for docking. 

And if she could help this Guardian find their supplies, maybe she could win over a little security from the humans, too. And what did her superiors need it for? The humans were better equipped to fix this wreck on this irritating moon. The sooner the humans got it working, the safer it would be for everyone. 

“Maybe…” she said slowly, uncertain. “But… we have to be careful. I think I have an idea that can help us both. But you’ll have to trust me… and I have to trust you.”

The Guardian perked up with another nod at the Ghost’s translation. 

Mikris angled her head and gestured for the Guardian to follow her. She heard it behind her as she crept to the edge of the platform. She glanced back at the Guardian and crouched down. “Over there. You see that doorway?” She pointed.

The Guardian nodded.

She kept her voice quiet. “It leads to another part of the rig. There’s a cache of supplies and other weird stuff, and the Captain guarding it is mine.” She hissed. “He’s terrible. If you kill him, it’ll make my life a lot better, and you can take the supplies.”

The Ghost spun its shell. “Okay. Take out a Captain. Not too hard to do.”

“Hold on,” she said softer, holding out her hand as the Guardian started to move. “I should come with you. The supplies are probably hidden, and I might need to get them open for you. And… I want to see him die.”

“You really don’t like him.”

“He killed my sister,” she growled. “I had to watch him torture her for a tiny mistake I made, something that wouldn’t even demand docking. I can’t kill him myself, as much as I want to.”

The Guardian sounded angry and sad as it spoke. “We’ll take him down, don’t worry,” the Ghost said. It, too, had the same grim inflection.

“I’ll run to the doorway. You chase after me, so no one suspects anything. Just don’t… actually try to shoot me, please.”

“We promise,” the Ghost said.

Mikris took a breath, letting a little bit of Ether from her tank fill her, before she leapt down and bolted horizontally across the ground. She heard the Guardian hit the ground right after and flinched at the shout and pursuing footsteps. 

Even if it was faked, it was still terrifying. 

Other Eliksni sprinted for cover, barking warnings. Shots flew wide, but she smelled no escaped Ether after the Guardian fired back. Missing on purpose. 

She ducked into the room and waited in the shadows. 

The Guardian skidded to a halt a few seconds later.

“You waited,” the Ghost said in surprise.

“And you didn’t shoot me,” she replied. 

The Guardian laughed again. It said something, and then hesitated. It tapped its chest and said one word, slower.

Mikris burbled in confusion before straightening. “Oh, oh-- is that your name? Ar… Ar-or…” She growled softly and listened more carefully. “Ar-or-ah?”

“Aurora,” repeated the Guardian, slower, patient.

“Aur… or… ra,” Mikris said, slowly mimicking the sounds. They felt strange in her mouth, but not too terribly unusual. “Velask, Aurora.”

The Guardian bounced on its toes.

“Mikris,” she introduced herself, mimicking its touch at her chest. She felt the urge to gesture supplication, but guessed drawing a blade for symbology might get her killed. 

“Mikris?” Aurora repeated. At her nod, the Guardian laughed in delight. “Velask?”

She chirped cheerfully. What a strange Guardian. 

“When this Captain is dead,” Ghost asked, “what will happen to you?”

Mikris thought for a second. “I’ll get a new Captain. I already know who he is, and he’s much better. We usually get told who would take over if our current Captain is… indisposed. I might be reassigned to Earth, if I’m lucky.”

“Not a fan of Titan?”

“Is anyone?”

Aurora laughed again at that. “It isn’t really great here, you’re right,” Ghost said. “But why are the Fa-- the Eliksni here at all?”

“You can say Fallen.” The word for her people rolled strange from her teeth. “We all know it’s true. There are lots of machines here. When the exodus of refugees came, from what I know, we followed. Hoping to find somewhere away from the Cabal. And this place is rife with technology that we could use to fix our Skiffs, Pikes, Ketches. To increase Ether production. I know it’s wrong to steal, but… we’re a dying people. We’re desperate.”

Ghost took a minute to translate. Aurora made a sympathetic sound before responding. “Aurora would wish to share,” Ghost said. “She’s been sympathetic to the Fallen for a long time, after learning what really happened…”

Mikris shrugged. “But we’ve made enemies of humanity instead of anything else. I shouldn’t be saying any of this. I think the Kells and Barons are all very stupid. An alliance would only benefit everyone, but it might be too late now. A few hundred years too late.” She growled. “Who am I to say what’s right or not? I’m dispensable.”

Aurora shook its head as Ghost translated. Ghost sounded uncertain and sad as it did, and responded before the Guardian could. “I don’t think that’s right. You’re not dispensable.”

Again, she shrugged. “I’m not valuable enough to the House to be considered otherwise. Just another Marauder.”

Aurora sounded indignant. “We don’t think so,” Ghost said firmly. “Maybe we’ve been at odds, but it’s not fair. No one has the Traveler anymore but the Cabal, so it shouldn’t matter now. We’re in the same position.”

Mikris growled softly. “I suppose so. But… you… you have Light.”

Aurora flexed its fingers, little sparks dancing over its armor. “The only one,” Ghost said softly. “It was hard to get it back.”

“It’s a dark time for everyone,” Mikris growled, hunching a little bit. She shook her head. “But it isn’t time to think about that. We have supplies you should take. And a Captain to kill. Come on.”

Mikris heard the Guardian follow after her as she started walking. She kept her guard up, watching for other Eliksni; she needed to be careful not to be seen associated with the Guardian. 

She heard voices and froze, ducking down. Aurora stopped behind her. “Wait, wait,” Mikris hissed. “Back up!”

Both of them slowly backed up. When Mikris was sure they were out of earshot, she said, “There’s other Fallen in there. We’ll do the same thing. I’ll run ahead, tell them to hide, and then you give chase. But give me another couple seconds before you do this time so everyone can run. If you lose sight of me, go to the left at the end of the room. It leads back outside. I’ll wait there.”

Aurora nodded in understanding. 

She took another deep breath. It was a bit harrowing, trusting such a dangerous creature not to turn on her. It would be easy for the Guardian to do that. 

Mikris bolted forward, putting on an act of fear and making her movements a little louder than she otherwise would. She heard barks of alarm as she skidded into the room.

“Guardian!” she yelped, snapping her head behind her. She could see Aurora waiting at the very end of the hall, just barely visible. “There’s a Guardian!”

The other Fallen jumped and scrambled, darting for cover, for places to hide. 

“Go! Go warn Raviks!” a Captain barked, pointing in the direction Mikris wanted to run anyway. 

“You can’t possibly try to fight it!” Mikris exclaimed. “You’ll die! I saw it kill a dozen others!”

The Captain couldn’t hide his shudder of fear. “Raviks can handle it. I’m not letting my crew get murdered for his pile of scraps. Do not engage!” he barked at the other Fallen. 

Mikris heard Aurora’s footsteps and sprinted for the door. 

The Fallen yelped and hid.

Mikris couldn’t look back, but she went outside into the rain again. She stepped to the side and crouched down to wait on the catwalk.

After a few seconds, Aurora slid outside as well.

“Everyone’s okay,” Mikris murmured. No gunfire, no shrieks, no smell of Ether. She gestured for the Guardian to follow her as she quietly maneuvered down the half-broken catwalk. 

It was… kind of fascinating, watching the Guardian move. Humans seemed so clumsy, but this one moved with a surprising grace. 

When Mikris was certain they were in a safe place to speak, she braced against the railing, crouched over against the wind and rain. “The cache isn’t far ahead,” she said. “It might have been moved inside, because of the storm. I’m not sure how many are helping Raviks guard it. He’s got a loyal crew.” She scoffed. “Devils, all of them. They can die, for all I care, too. All of them but a few of us think he’s so great. He’s a murderer, a thief, and a self-centered monster. So are the rest of them.”

“You really don’t care if they die?” Ghost asked.

“No.” She shifted, tightening her grip on the slippery rail against a stronger wind. “Raviks, for all his cruelty, is smart. He might try to run. Don’t let him.”

“You should stay back,” Ghost said. “We don’t want you to get hurt.”

She clicked softly in agreement. “My stealth’s been broken for a little while, but I can hide. I just want to see the Ether leave Raviks for the last time. For my sister and everyone else he's hurt.”

“Be careful, Mikris,” Ghost said.

Mikris let Aurora go first. She crept behind it, flicking at her broken stealth unit. The weather played merry hell with their tech and it was unbearably frustrating. 

She crouched low when she heard a warning screech.

Raviks's crew. Deranged Devils, the lot of them, stuck with him since the collapse of their House. She hated them, their red-glowing eyes, their pale flesh. Some of them would speak with mechanical voices or cough out clouds of red dust. She didn’t know what they did to themselves, and didn’t care; she wanted no part.

If the Guardian could kill them all, then good. 

Aurora sprinted forward, gun raising.

Ether spilled into the air.

Mikris kept low, moving forward after the Guardian, watching with a grim relish as her tormentors were cut down and killed. Every one of them that helped torture and murder her dear little sister… every one of them that she dreamed of killing with her own hands… to see them struck down by razing Light was a blessing itself. 

A bitter victory. 

Aurora stretched out a hand and ozone filled the air. Static crackled over the catwalk, tingling Mikris’s claws, and the lightning of the looming storm shattered the boiling clouds overhead. 

A staff of pure electricity formed in Aurora’s hands, and Mikris watched the Guardian lunge into the suddenly terrified crew.

Her eyes were drawn to the large Captain firing at the Guardian. She bared her teeth behind her rebreather. Raviks. 

Aurora saw him, too, and lashed with the staff. Thunder crashed from each impact.

Raviks backed away, firing faster, panicking, roaring in rage and fear. Mikris gripped the railing and straightened to watch.

His eyes flicked to the movement and he froze.

Mikris stared at him as the Guardian reeled back, lightning building.

He knew. 

Good.

He howled as Aurora struck him, arms twitching wildly as the electricity seized his muscles.

Raviks collapsed to his knees as Mikris prowled forward, the only one left.

Aurora’s staff fizzled out as it raised its gun at him. Ether leaked from his body. 

“Traitor,” Raviks snarled at Mikris. “You traitor!”

She crouched. “Does it hurt?” she asked. Her voice shook only a little bit. “The shock in your body? I imagine it does. It seemed to hurt Phaloriks.”

He roared at her.

Mikris couldn’t help the flinch back, but her fury kept her at the Guardian’s side. “Do you think Light would want to help someone who would torment someone so innocent? Phaloriks did nothing. Nothing! You tortured her for my foolish, minute mistake. You made me watch my little sister bleed and beg as you and your Devil friends jabbed live wires into her. You’re a monster. You deserve this.”

“There is no Light,” he snarled, rasping. “You’re a bigger fool than I thought you were. A coward and a traitor. I should have killed you, too. I thought that would be a lesson--”

He cut off with a choke as Aurora pulled the trigger. Ether and blood spilled from his throat. 

He collapsed into a limp heap. 

Mikris shuddered and backed away from the corpse.

She sank to the floor, shaking.

Aurora crouched beside her, reaching out a hand. Mikris let the Gaurdian take one of her hands. Oh, she couldn’t breathe, even when she fumbled at her Ether tank. Her blood pounded so hard she couldn’t hear anything else, and there were phantom claws grasping her throat tight.

“Are you okay?” the Ghost asked. 

“I don’t know,” Mikris whispered, her voice shaking more than her hands. “I thought I’d… I’d… be happy… but… my sister’s still dead… and… and…” She rasped in a breath. The thrashing ocean beneath them offered no solace, no peace.

He was dead, really dead. She stared at his corpse, waiting for relief to sweep over her, but she kept expecting him to get up again, to bat aside the Guardian, bare his teeth in her face and tear her arms away--

The Ghost spoke softly to Aurora, probably translating the interaction.

Aurora gasped and holstered its gun. It took its hand back, but only to reach up for its helmet.

Mikris jolted, about to protest--wouldn’t the air be too toxic for the humans?

But when the Guardian’s helmet was removed, brilliant teal eyes blinked at her. 

Mikris felt everything grind to a halt.

She’d never seen them in person, these mechanical humans. Every piece was incredibly intricate, teal and violet. No machinery Eliksni had ever made could be as stunningly elegant as this one creation.

And clearly, the Guardian was alive. Had to be, had to have been, if she--yes, she, Mikris realized now--was indeed a Guardian. Mikris knew that, of course, but the thought of a machine like this being sapient beyond what the greatest Servitors were capable of, beyond anything her people had ever created… a living mind in a mechanical body, in fact--

Everything she had thought about humans was turned on its head in an instant as she stared at the Guardian in complete and utter awe.

Aurora, however, didn’t seem to notice as she said something, her resonating voice gentle and sympathetic. Her hand reached for Mikris’ again. 

“We’re both really sorry,” the Ghost said softly. “Neither of you deserved that. But… she’s at peace now, right? If her killer is dead, and he can’t hurt you anymore?”

She blinked a few times. “I… yes… that’s… that’s true… I…”

Aurora said something to the Ghost, and it twitched its shell as though thinking. “I don’t know… how to translate?” it said in confusion. “She wants to… make you… feel… better?”

Mikris angled her head at the Ghost. “Um. How?”

“I don’t know if you have a word for it.” The Ghost made a slightly frustrated sound. 

“A… human thing?”

“Yes.”

“Um… sure?” 

When the Ghost relayed her cautious agreement, Mikris felt her Ether vessels freeze up. 

The Guardian was leaning in toward her, moving slow, cautious, watching her carefully. Her fingers moved up along her arm, gentle, barely touching her. 

Mikris flushed cold as Aurora let her arms wrap around her. An embrace. 

She was… warm. Warmer than Mikris. She was knelt forward on one knee, pulling Mikris close. 

Mikris sat frozen for a long second before slowly letting a hand curl around Aurora’s arm, not sure what to do. Returning the embrace was surely proper in human culture, but she nearly shivered at the scandal of it in hers. What was the right thing? 

She’d just met this Guardian, and she was behaving like a lover.

Were humans this intimate with everyone?

Aurora squeezed her a little tighter, saying something quiet, reassurance in her tone.

After a few seconds, Aurora pulled back and took both of her upper hands in her two. Mikris stared at her with wide eyes, utterly flustered. The Guardian asked something.

“Are you okay?” Ghost said. “I didn’t really know if that was something done in Eliksni culture, if we didn’t have a word for it in the database…”

“Um,” she said, her voice tiny and a little squeaky. “Yes. We… we do, but not… um, not really… often, or anything, it’s, um…”

Ghost stared at her for a second before spinning its shell and bobbing. It seemed worried. “Is it something bad? She didn’t mean any offense by it! It’s--”

Mikris chittered softly. “It isn’t offensive, no. It’s just… usually… very intimate?” She winced at the almost Dreg-like pitch of her voice. 

The Ghost made a startled sound, and Aurora looked at it in question. It replied, and Aurora’s eyes widened. She turned quickly back to Mikris, and her voice sounded almost a little glitched as she spoke fast, something that sounded apologetic.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, really!” Mikris assured. “You didn’t know! I… didn’t know humans were just… so… touchy?”

“Are Eliksni not?” Ghost asked.

“No,” she answered. “Though I guess… humans don’t really… have claws, so it must be easier? And no armor like us… but… you’re also… you’re not…”

“Exos are designed to be very much like humans,” Ghost said. “She has the same sort of nervous system structure as a human, for the most part.”

Mikris stared in awe at Aurora again. “A marvel of engineering… incomparable, remarkable… I just…”

Ghost laughed and translated, and Aurora’s lights brightened. She ducked a little, almost shy as she responded. That was… almost cute, for a human, for a Guardian, for something that just slaughtered a dozen Eliksni in one fell swoop. 

She suddenly had a thousand questions, but they locked behind her teeth when the catwalk creaked in the burst of wind. Her cloak lashed violently around her, and she instinctively tightened her hands on the Guardian’s, her lower gripping the partitions of the floor. 

“The storm,” Ghost said, spinning and swooping in closer to Aurora. “We should find somewhere inside.”

“Or off this damned moon,” Mikris grumbled. 

Aurora helped pull Mikris to her feet. She kept one hand laced with Mikris’ as both of them braced against the wind. The sea below them made Mikris feel dizzy as it roiled and crashed into the rig. She hated the sight of it; she was sure there was something lurking beneath those waves, something out of legend and horror tales. 

Aurora tugged her along, intending for the next doorway. They stumbled across the slick metal. Mikris searched for better purchase with her claws, curling her toes a little. Uncomfortable, but it kept her from sliding away. Ideally, she could drop to all her limbs, but the warmth of the Guardian clutching her hand was strangely reassuring. 

The entire catwalk shuddered with a terrible sound. 

Both of them were thrown to the ground. Mikris yelped and scrabbled to dig in her claws. Debris and loose objects were flung asunder, sliding across the floor. Some of them fell from the railing into the sea below.

Aurora’s sound of pain made her snap her head up. 

The Guardian had slipped and crashed into a pillar, looking dazed.

Mikris skittered forward, grasping with her claws. She grabbed Aurora’s arm in two hands before the Guardian could be sent sliding into a broken part of the railing. 

Aurora blinked and gasped out something that sounded grateful and alarmed. Mikris growled soft and dragged her toward the doorway. 

Somehow, they made it, and Aurora threw herself at the door to close it. 

Aurora breathed a sigh of obvious relief. 

Mikris leaned against the wall, willing the world to stop moving. It didn’t stop, it hadn’t stopped since she’d gotten here, and she hated it. Like she was sick all the time. 

The Guardian and the Ghost began to talk to each other. Mikris didn’t understand their conversation; didn’t bother to even listen. She prowled a little further inside, arms held out for balance, before sinking to the floor against the wall. They would likely be here a while. 

Aurora joined her after a minute. They sat quietly together for a little bit. 

Mikris eyed her, finally, and asked a question. 

“Guardian? Can you… teach me the human language?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy femslash february, everyone! here's a little more of these two, and I've got a third part coming soon tm!!

“What will you do now?” Mikris asked the Guardian as they stood side by side, staring out at the ocean. It was calm, for now. The storm was moving out and away.

“Get the supplies to Sloane,” said Saffron, Aurora’s Ghost. “And then… I don’t know. We’re trying to find the rest of our leaders.”

Mikris looked at Aurora in worry. “Are they alive?”

“We don’t know,” Saffron said softly. “We can only hope.”

“I hope they are okay. You seem to care very much for them.”

Aurora nodded at the translation. “Cayde, especially,” Saffron said. “He’s the leader of the Hunters. Her mentor, though he wouldn’t say it.”

“Why?”

“Not out of any humility.” Saffron spun her shell with a scoff. “It’s mostly because Aurora’s done a lot of things that almost no other Guardian has done. She wouldn’t say this, and that’s because she is pretty humble. But she helped kill Oryx.”

Mikris drew up with a sharp gasp, staring wide-eyed at Aurora, who was frowning at Saffron and saying something. Saffron bobbed backwards, replying.

“Oryx, the Taken King, Crota, Son of Oryx, Aksis, Archon Prime, and the rest of the Splicers, we’ve been in the Vault of Glass and killed Atheon, Time’s Conflux, we killed Skolas the Rabid, so-called Kell of Kells--” Saffron rattled off the Guardian’s kills like they were nothing at all.

Aurora grabbed at the Ghost, exclaiming something. Saffron ducked out of the way, more prideful in her continuing words.

“Draksis, Winter Kell, Malok, Pride of Oryx, Alak-Hul, the Darkblade, Sepiks Prime, Taniks the Scarred, the Dark Heart of the Black Garden! Aurora killed them all!”

Mikris stared. Speechless. Stunned. Reeling.

The King-slayer, Kell-ender? 

All slain by a single Guardian?

There was the rumor that it was a single Guardian, but it… it was true.

Mikris had asked the killer of Kells and gods for mercy. For help. 

And she’d been given it. 

Aurora swatted at the Ghost again, and looked at Mikris with worry. She said something, then a little more intently to Saffron.

Saffron huffed. “She’s mad I told you that. But I’m proud of my Guardian! I brought her back to life to help people and she slew gods! She’s a hero!”

Mikris felt a deferring shadow sweep over her and crouched into a bow. “I… I had no idea… if I’d known… I… I wouldn’t have… I’m not…” Her growl was soft and pitched, nearly a whine.

Stars above-- she’d been embraced by the most legendary Guardian of all time. 

That was beyond scandal. Beyond anything she could think of.

Aurora reached for her, saying something almost pleading. 

Mikris shied back a little from her hands. Fear? Shame? Was Mikris even worthy of standing near the King-Slayer? Ender of Primes? Killer of Kells?

Aurora’s face fell. Mikris didn’t know much about humans, but it was clear she was upset.

Saffron looked between them. “Maybe… that was a bad idea,” she said quietly. “Mikris? She won’t hurt you.” She murmured something in the human tongue with worry. “Are you okay?”

“Gods,” she rasped. “I asked the killer of gods and Kells for help. Who am I to do that?”

Aurora reached for her again, definitely pleading this time. 

“She says… she doesn’t want you to think about her like that. She’s just a Guardian. Oh, I really shouldn’t have said all that… but she wants to help you.”

“But me… I’m no one.”

Aurora shook her head and grasped her hands in hers. “You’re important because you’re a person,” Saffron translated. “She’s right, too. Is that what they tell you, in the Houses? That if you’re not strong and powerful… you’re no one? It’s not true at all! Everyone is someone!”

“Is that how… humans see things?” Mikris blinked. “That’s… that’s your perspective?”

She was honestly stunned. 

It seemed such a desperately beautiful way to think of things.

Someone having worth simply because they exist?

Something deep and lonely twisted in her chest. These tiny two-armed things were far more advanced than her people, it seemed.

Something changed in Aurora’s face at the translation. She softened, an expression that Mikris couldn’t define, but couldn’t keep looking at--something was a little unbearable about it. It wasn’t pity, exactly. 

“It is,” Saffron said. “That’s why Guardians fight. Every life is important. From the tiniest young human to the oldest and most frail, the healthiest to the weakest. Everyone deserves the chance to live.”

“Did we think that way?” Mikris wondered aloud. “When the Great Machine was with us… was that our view of life? Have we fallen so far that this is such a novel perspective to me?”

Aurora squeezed her fingers gently. “It doesn’t matter what anyone else tells you,” Saffron said. “You’re a valuable person because you exist.”

“But we die… so many of us die. Dregs by the dozens, Vandals and Marauders… even Captains. Barons and Kells!”

“And it isn’t fair,” Saffron translated Aurora’s saddened words. “There’s so much Darkness and Aurora would want all the Eliksni to be like you. To talk first. To work things out without anyone getting hurt, without being violent.”

“It’s so ingrained in us,” Mikris murmured. “The aggression, the violence, the desperation. We’ve had to fight to survive since our homeworld was destroyed. Centuries. I don’t like it. But what else can be done?”

Aurora looked determined. Saffron spun her shell and responded to what Aurora said. Aurora repeated herself.

“She wants to be friends.”

Mikris started.

Friends?

“I… I've… never been friends… with a Guardian.”

Aurora’s face moved into a friendlier expression when she spoke. “She would be honored to be your first Guardian friend,” Saffron said. She bobbed a little in the air. “Me, too, I think. It’s kind of a relief, being near an Eliksni who isn’t trying to tear apart my shell. And you’re really nice, too.”

Mikris looked between the two of them, too stunned to know what to say.

After a quick conversation between Ghost and Guardian, Saffron spoke again. “If you don’t want to be friends, and just go back to what you were doing, that’s okay too. Guardians are dangerous. We all know that. And we don’t know how much longer we’ll be on Titan…”

“I don’t…” Mikris growled softly in uncertainty. “What does it mean to be friends with a Guardian? I don’t really think… I don’t think it would be how we have friends…”

“Well, for Guardians, and humans in general, friends just… sort of… hang out!” Saffron spun her shell. “They talk about things, and just spend time together? And do things together.”

Mikris hesitated for a long moment. “I… you’re… you’re so nice… even to me… you really want to be friends with me? With a Fallen? Even a Fallen who’s just no one special at all?”

Aurora shook her head. “You’re special!” Saffron said. “You’re the first Fallen who’s wanted to work with us on your own idea! You’re really brave for it, especially knowing how dangerous Guardians can be…”

Mikris flushed a little chilly at the compliment, ducking her head. 

Aurora’s jaw was bright teal with a hopeful smile. She asked her Ghost something. 

“Aurora wants to know if you can teach her Eliksni,” Saffron said.

Mikris chittered. “I’m not sure if you… can? Can you make the same sounds? Humans can’t, but… you’re an exo…” She murmured the word with a shy note of reverence. 

It was a little hard to look at Aurora in the face for very long, as much as she wanted to study her. That was kind of weird, she thought, a little colder with a further fluster. She felt caught between an awed curiosity, a fearful deference, and an instinctive veneration.

Aurora made a thoughtful humming sound. She narrowed her eyes in determination and, to Mikris’ shock, mimicked an Eliksni’s growl nearly flawlessly. It was bizarre, really, hearing a sound intended to mean a cautious curiosity coming from a tiny humanoid, somewhat flanged. 

“Oh,” Mikris said. “How… how did you…”

Aurora tapped at her throat as she spoke. “A lot of exos can mimic any sounds,” Saffron translated. “I’m not sure how to translate the term, but it’s the structure that allows her to speak. She’s never gotten the chance to learn Eliksni fluently yet, because of the cultural aspects that we don’t have in our databases.”

“I… I can try,” Mikris said. “I’m not sure how good of a teacher I am. But can you teach me more human-speak, too? Not just ‘hello’ and the other little things? You have such a strange and curious language.”

Aurora nodded eagerly with a laugh. She gestured for Mikris to follow her. “Let’s find somewhere a little safer.”

Mikris kept pace with the Guardian easily, bounding to ledges it took the Guardian two leaps to get to. It was incredible, watching the Guardian jump in midair. It should be impossible, but then again, this was a being that came back to life when she died. Was it rude of her to be so fascinated?

Aurora led her to a region more occupied by the Guardians. Mikris kept hunched, nervous, flicking her eyes around. Aurora seemed perfectly comfortable; her calmness helped ease Mikris a little bit.

This little room was pretty well restored, loose objects recollected and relocated, things secured tighter to walls. The table and chairs were bolted to the floor. Even the lights weren’t flickering as badly as other places on the rig. Aurora hummed, musical and casual, as she let her Ghost fly forward to scan the other airlocked door. 

Aurora asked Saffron something. Saffron was quiet a second as she finished whatever she was doing before zooming back over. “Are you hungry or anything, Mikris?” Saffron asked. “We have some food rations, fresh water?”

Mikris blinked and thought a second before clicking a negative. “No, but thank you.” She suddenly gasped and brushed back her cloak to look at the Ether tank at her back. She sighed in relief. “And I’m alright on Ether for a while yet. Thank the stars.”

“That’s good!” Saffron sounded relieved, too. “We should be really safe here for a while. I’ve transmatted all those supplies, so the other Guardians will be looking through those. And we haven’t seen any Hive or Fallen here, either.”

She was alone with this Guardian who was grinning so excited at her. Mikris was breaking just about every rule she could think of, and she was almost dizzy for a moment with the fearful sort of glee about the entire situation. She’d never done anything out of line before, and this was going against everything she had been told not to do!

But despite her worry, her concern… here she was. The friendly eagerness of Aurora was infectious, in a way. She wanted so badly to learn anything she could, and even though she knew it was dangerous, she felt oddly safe around Aurora. A legend among legends, the only Guardian to reclaim their Light, a killer of gods and Kells… and she was sitting down gesturing for Mikris to sit across from her, almost wiggling with her enthusiasm. 

Mikris sat a little awkwardly, trying to copy how Aurora was sitting, but the chair was a little small and she wasn’t sure what to do with her arms. She eventually settled on folding all her hands together on her lap.

Aurora leaned forward, hands gripping the seat of the chair between her knees, speaking with a bright tone. 

Saffron spun her shell. “She wants to know if we can find you later, by the way,” Saffron said. “We’re not sure how long we’ll be here, but we can still hang out and learn while we are, and if we can come back, or find you again, we’d both like that!”

Mikris warbled softly in thought. “I’m… not sure,” she admitted. “We all have our own communicators? How good is your technology with communications?”

“Can I see it?” Saffron asked.

Mikris held out her arm. Beside her stealth controls was the control for her comms. She tapped it with another claw. “Here.”

Saffron hovered lower. “Is it okay if I scan it? I haven’t had the chance to do a good scan of an active Eliksni communicator.”

“It’s not active right now,” Mikris said. “I shut it off when I was stealing those tools because we didn’t know if you could detect them. Is that okay?”

“It should still be fine, yes. Hold still, please!” 

Mikris watched a little beam of light shoot out from the Ghost over her arm. She heard the curious coo in her throat as she watched, amazed. She didn’t feel anything, but it was still very strange, and utterly fascinating. She kept still, waiting. 

“This is incredible technology,” Saffron said, sounding amazed. “I could spend hours looking at this! I won’t though, don’t worry.” She laughed. “I can connect to this specific communicator, though, so that no one can detect it, but we can privately contact each other.”

“You can do that?” Mikris angled her head. 

“Yep! Just a little bit of Light to do it. If you’re okay with it, of course. But we can pick up your signal if you ping it, almost anywhere in the system. So, if you need our help with anything, too, you can ping us and we can try to come and help.”

Mikris chirped softly. “That’s… very nice of you.”

“Guardians are supposed to help people in need,” Saffron said. “That’s what the Light calls us to do.”

“You include yourself with your Guardian, yet you seem… an entirely different mind?”

“That is true,” Saffron said, twitching her shell. “Ghosts and Guardians are a pair, though. As we work together, and master our Light, we develop a connection so deep we can feel each other’s emotions. I found Aurora a very long time ago. Though… it’s strange… with the Great Machine locked away, it’s… I haven’t really had the chance to talk about it with her yet, but it’s a little fuzzy.”

Mikris looked between the two and warbled soft in sympathy. “What happened? I only heard things…”

Saffron was quiet for a few seconds. Finally she floated upwards a little bit. “I connected to your communicator. One second.” She looked to her patiently waiting Guardian and spoke. 

Mikris listened to their conversation. They both talked fairly quickly, so it was hard for her to understand the sounds of their words. What a strange language. It depended so much on words, not sounds. Aurora’s face went from her earlier excitement to something more somber. 

“If you don’t mind a sad, painful, ongoing story,” Saffron said finally, much more serious, “I can tell you what happened.”

Mikris nodded. “I want to understand. I don’t know if I can… if I can help, I’m just one Marauder, but…”

Aurora reached out a hand after Saffron’s translation, palm-up on the table, like she wanted to take Mikris’s hand still resting there from the Ghost’s scan. Mikris hesitated before letting her fingers twitch forward. Aurora smiled gently as she knit her fingers with Mikris’ and spoke. Mikris tried not to think about the intimacy of the gesture; it wasn’t so for the humans, so Aurora was showing her friendship. 

“Understanding and empathy is more than enough,” Saffron translated. “It’s been difficult for all of us… but a little kindness and friendship is welcome. Thank you.”

Mikris chirped with a duck of her head. “You’re not what I thought Guardians were like. Still strong, powerful, but… you’re so nice.”

Aurora squeezed her hand a little, making Mikris flush colder. Human friendship, she reminded herself. 

She was still too much to look at for very long. Mikris was all shades of flustered, instead looking between their entwined fingers and the Ghost. 

“You… still want to hear what happened, Mikris?” Saffron asked. 

Mikris nodded, silently steeling herself. She knew it must be bad.

She was wrong. It was worse.

Far worse than the rumors said.

When Saffron went quiet, Mikris growled her sadness and horror. She gripped Aurora’s hand tightly, hoping the touch was sympathetic for her. “Is there hope?” she whispered. “If you have your Light…”

“There is,” Saffron said, determined. “We’re going to retake the City. The Cabal won’t have our Light forever.”

Mikris chirped softly. “Your hope is… it’s inspiring. Is it strange for me to feel that way?”

“Not at all!” Saffron translated for Aurora. Aurora sounded eager in her response. “Aurora said… well… maybe when we get the Light back… maybe we can stop this war, with the Eliksni. If at least one Eliksni wants to sit and talk and be friends, there must be more.”

“I don’t know,” Mikris said uncertainly. “The Kells… the Barons, Archons… it’s a lot of chaos now, but there are still so many who are greedy and selfish, who have lived without hope or Light for so long…”

“But the ones who will care?”

Mikris thought about that.

Could it happen?

She had met some of the former Wolves. The majority had… genuinely liked being allied with the Awoken. They had great respect for Marakel, great respect for Siyuriks pak Variisis, and had been treated with a kindness few Eliksni had known in centuries, even when they had been beaten in war. Eliksni were not nearly so kind to those they bested. 

Perhaps it was possible. 

“I… I think I would want that,” Mikris said softly. “If we could all live safer… live in Light… so many of us have given up any hope of it happening.”

Aurora grasped her hand in both of hers and spoke with determination. Saffron spun her shell as she translated. “We aren’t so different now, with the Great Machine stolen from us all. You were chosen once, it isn’t fair to let this keep happening to the Eliksni! Neither of us are sure what might happen later, but we’ll do what we can. We’ll fight for you, too. Our hope is yours.”

Mikris trilled with a little spark in her chest. She could dare to hope. She could! There might be a future for herself, for her people. Why would the Eliksni need to be alone? Why couldn’t they be friends with Guardians? Aurora was looking at her so brightly. 

There would be a hard path ahead of them, she knew. But… it would start with this.

She felt a sudden burst of--she wasn’t sure. Fear? Anticipation? Something strong. Would she be the start of an alliance with Guardians? Had this happened before? It must have, surely, after this many years, she couldn’t be the first Eliksni to befriend Guardians. 

But would this be different? 

“Are you okay?” Saffron asked.

Mikris clicked her mandibles slowly, thinking. “I think so,” she said. “It’s… there’s a lot to think about. But I do want to be your friend. I want to learn about humans. About how you live, and how you have so much hope when everything seems so dark. I want to learn… how to feel that, too.”

Aurora nodded eagerly. “Just you being here means that you have hope,” Saffron said.

Mikris blinked. 

She was right.

The Guardian grinned and leaned forward. “On a lighter topic,” Saffron said. “Let’s break this language barrier a little.”

Mikris sat straighter with an eager chirp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come stop by my tumblr @lesbianeliksni


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (tw for temporary character death and canon-typical violence)  
> did you guys want CUTE GAY CONFESSIONS?? even if you didn't, here you go!

She secretly met with the Guardian for another dozen cycles. Her new Captain didn’t really notice her sneak off--if he did, he didn’t say anything, at least. Mikris was grateful for it, and for him. She was also lucky to be a Marauder. With her stealth repaired, it was even more difficult for her movements to be tracked by anyone.

Mikris and Aurora sat for hours learning to speak the other’s language. Sometimes they would wander together as they talked. A few times they fought Hive, with Mikris accompanying Aurora on little missions to collect supplies or survey data or scan things around the rig. It was very fascinating, watching Aurora work.

But something seemed… odd, when she used her Light.

She finally brought it up when Aurora jerked back after striking down the last Wizard in the room.

“Aurora?” she asked.

“Yeah?”

“You… strange, with Light? I notice. You use Light, but look… not you like it?”

Aurora flexed her fingers. With her helmet on, Mikris couldn’t see the frown she knew was on her face. “Arc Light,” she said. “I never preferred it.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. It’s… too fast. I think.” She tightened her hand into a fist. “But it’s easy to use. I’m trying to tap into the Light more, to find what I’m so used to using…”

“What you use? I… not knowing a lot of Light. But I want to learn.”

“Void,” was the response. “You don’t know what that means… um… it’s… you’ve been in space, right?”

Mirkis nodded. 

“It’s the energy in space.”

She blinked. “But… is none?”

“Yeah. It’s confusing, I know, sorry. But it’s like that. It’s like… shadows. Your stealth. That’s what my Light feels like. What it… should feel like. But I can’t find it.”

Mikris wasn’t sure she really understood, but she chirped soft in sympathy. “How can you find it?”

“I don’t know, either.” Aurora sighed. “I’m used to using it with my fireteam… with my friends. But they don’t have their Light. And my Light feels different. It’s not like the Light from the Traveler.”

“But is from Traveler?” Their word for the Great Machine felt odd in her mouth. She wanted to learn a more proper translation, but that could wait. 

“Yes, and no?” Aurora crossed her arms, but it seemed more thoughtful. “It’s from a piece of it, one that broke off.”

Mikris nodded. She remembered that story.

“But its Light is… wilder. That’s the only way I can think to describe it.”

“Wild?” Mikris angled her head at the unfamiliar word.

“Like… like… out? Away from any civilization, from people,” Aurora said. “Deep forests, abandoned ruins. That’s the wilds. And this Light isn’t quite the same pure Light as I used to use. It’s touched by something, and I don’t know what that means.”

“Is bad?” Mikris asked with worry, stepping closer. 

“I don’t think so. It’s just different. But thanks for the concern.”

“We are friends,” Mikris said softly, holding out a hand palm-up. “And… I like knowing about you.”

There was a smile in Aurora’s voice. “You’re real sweet, Mickie.”

“Sweet?” she asked.

“Yeah. You’re really nice.”

She chirped shyly.

Aurora laughed a little bit. “You always look so embarrassed when I say nice things to you! You know they’re all true, right?”

Mikris ducked her head further. “We not say things like that very much. Is not bad. Is just…” She hesitated, unsure how to word it. She switched to Eliksni, hoping Aurora could understand, or Saffron could translate. “Compliments tend to be more, um… more intimate? I know we are friends, of course, but with as many as you say…”

“Oh! Have I been making you uncomfortable? I’m sorry!”

“No! Am just… is… strange, for me.” Mikris chittered a little nervously, a bit flustered. “Humans… do things we only do with… with… humans do so much. Touch. Say nice thing. Gifts.”

Aurora put a hand to her mask. “Oh… oh my stars, Mickie, I didn’t know that! You could have told me! Have I been making things weird?”

Mikris shrugged, looking down. “I not want say,” she mumbled. “It make you happy…”

“But… but if it’s made you uncomfortable…”

“No,” she said. She warbled nervously, stepping back, fidgeting. She spoke in quiet Eliksni. “I guess I’ve just kind of liked the attention. It’s selfish. But no one’s ever been so nice to me. I know it’s how humans show friendship. So I… I just kind of… had to separate it from how we do those things.”

Aurora started to reach her hands for her and paused. 

Mikris curled into herself more. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I don’t want to ruin our friendship because of a culture difference.”

“Oh, Mikris,” Aurora murmured. This time she did offer her hands. Mikris let her take her upper two. “I’m not trying to… to… I don’t know how to translate it for you. Confuse you?”

Mikris had her chin nearly to her chest. 

Aurora hesitated. “Here, let’s go somewhere that isn’t all Hive-y and gross.”

Mikris shuddered a little, baring her teeth at the walls.

She let the Guardian lead her back out to the more green region of what Aurora called the Archology. Once a place of research, now left to the mercy of time. It was honestly pretty pleasant inside, aside from the Hive. The lush, overgrown jungle was humid but not hot, and Mikris was sure that the air could hold Ether wonderfully. It felt like the air on a Ketch. 

Aurora sat down on one of the cleared-off benches, and Mikris sat beside her. Her lower claws curled on her lap and she fidgeted with her claws.

“I really don’t mean to have confused you or anything, if that’s what’s happened,” Aurora said softly after a few long seconds of quiet.

Mikris shook her head. “I know is human way of friends. I not think you feel other.”

Aurora winced. “I’m sorry. This is awkward, isn’t it?”

“Little, yes.” Mikris hunched her shoulders, a little too nervous to laugh. 

“No one’s ever been nice to you like that?”

“Only sister,” Mikris murmured. “But, in friend-family way. No one show… feeling. But I am… I am… not… live long? Only few years?”

“Oh,” Aurora said. “You’re young?”

She shrugged. In Eliksni, she elaborated. “I’m only about thirty years old, compared to the rotation of your planet? I mean, I’m old enough that I could… um… I could have… we’re old enough at about ten Earth-years. I’ve just… not really…”

Saffron had to translate a little bit for Aurora.

The Guardian reached up and took off her helmet. Mikris looked down at her twitching hands to avoid her eyes. “You sound lonely.”

Mikris shrugged again. “All want feeling. Yes? But I know I have time. Only worry about survive.”

“I guess I can relate.” Aurora sighed. “So worried about trying to save all of humanity and defeat the Darkness and…” She shook her head. 

Mikris started to respond, but froze. Whatever thought she had was wiped from her mind at the sudden shadow that swept over her, deep, a cold far different from the sweetness of her Ether seething into her veins. She grabbed at her blades with trembling claws.

Aurora jumped upright, raising her gun. “What is it?”

Mikris stood, hunching low, drawing her swords. “Not know,” she hissed. “Dark. Smells Dark. Hive… follow us here?”

Aurora stood still. 

An unholy screech had Mikris scrambling to turn on her stealth. 

The lights flickered, air hued with sickly green. Mikris’s eyes were pulled to the broken airlock across the Arcology. She could feel the shadow seeping out, cloying the roof of her mouth and the back of her throat. She pressed her tongue to the back row of her teeth, trying to rid her mouth of the nauseating stench.

“Mikris,” Aurora whispered, reaching out toward the ripple of her. “Be careful.”

Mikris would only whimper with fear.

Claws flashed in the darkness. The clicking, rattling, loose-jawed chatter of Thrall echoed in Mikris’ skull, driving daggers under her keratin plates with the arcane of the shrill cry that followed. Three bigger figures, silhouettes with flashes of magic, floated above the approaching horde, their tattered robes fluttering in a breeze Mikris couldn’t feel.

One by one, three Wizards swept into the room, raising their claws with their arcane darkness building, their voices pitching Mikris’s blood into ice and acid in her throat. The Thrall swarmed beneath the Wizards, and their screech was rife with a dark hunger--a hunger to extinguish life and Light.

Mikris was frozen in terror for a second until the crack of Aurora’s gun jolted her. A Thrall collapsed into dust. Mikris breathed in a rush of Ether and scrambled around Aurora to dart into the horde of Thrall. Her heart was in her throat, but she fought around it.

Her blades flashed and sizzled with arc as she cut through them and danced back from their lashing claws. She could try to cut down the Thrall, keep them off Aurora, and the Guardian could easier focus on the Wizards--

A coil of fear rolled through her.

Aurora crackled out a yelp of pain and Mikris snapped up her head to see the door behind them pouring out more Hive. 

Mikris pounced forward with a terrified bark. “Aurora!”

A cloud of poison made her stumble back, retching into her rebreather. It was the kind of poison that wasn’t in her mouth, but seeped into her mind, Darkness cloying like death in her throat. She stared through squinted, blurring eyes, blinking fast and pleading her helmet’s display to reconfigure. The Wizards were singing, making her dizzy, making her sick. Singing, screaming, she didn’t know the difference. Maybe there wasn’t.

Saffron’s voice pinged over the comms. “Mikris!”

She rasped for her Ether. “I-I’m okay.”

“Can you get them off Aurora?”

Mikris tightened her fingers on her blades, staring at the horde, reeling, shaking. “She--she-- is she--”

“She’s dead. I can’t get her until it’s safe. They’ll kill me.”

Mikris couldn’t breathe for the fear. 

Her friend was dead under a screaming mass of Hive ten feet in front of her. 

“Mikris, please!” Saffron pleaded. “Before they find me, too!”

Mikris tightened her jaw and clicked off her stealth. 

The Thrall snapped up their heads and shrieked. 

She bolted across the floor and scrambled for a tree. The Thrall’s hungry claws nearly caught her cloak, and she fought through another cloud of poison that burned over her skin and singed her armor, but she was just fast enough.

Mikris clung to the tree and started firing with a shock pistol beneath her. She could only pray, only hope that she bought enough time--

A burst of warm Light washed over the world.

She looked up to see Aurora jumping to her feet and raising her gun. Light shimmered over her armor, silver and white and gold, rolling off of her in waves.

She’d never seen her come back to life before. Mikris stared in stunned awe at the power that emanated from the Guardian, the Light that she could feel from here. 

Aurora aimed her hand cannon at the Wizards, but her helmet looked for Mikris. She paused when she saw her clinging desperately to the tree, just above the thrashing claws.

Something strange happened. 

The Guardian lifted her gun higher, toward the sky. Mikris smelled smoke, but it was sweet, a rich wood fire, beautifully pleasant. She could taste it, too, rich and lingering, but she wasn’t sure that was the sweet-smoke scent. There was a sort of bite to it, sweet but sharp, that tickled the roof of her mouth. It felt like heavy sunbeams against her keratin plates, despite their distance from the sun, a deep warmth oddly comforting alongside her chilly Ether in her chest.

Flames flickered over Aurora’s cloak. She lowered her burning pistol and pulled the trigger. The crack of the gun was resounding, nothing Mikris had ever heard, and the bullet was molten gold. 

The Wizard exploded into ash with a fading scream.

Aurora fired again, and again, and the other two Wizards were scorched into embers. 

Aurora spun her gun, whirled, and hip-fired into the Thrall, catching their attention away from Mikris. 

Mikris slithered down the tree to cut back at them, still struggling to breathe, still shaking, their terrible dark screams still clawing at the inside of her head. She fought all the same, focusing on Aurora’s Light.

Together, they killed the rest of the Hive. 

Aurora reached out her hand. “Quick, before any more show up,” she urged. 

Mikris took her hand, and they ran out of the Arcology. 

“Aurora--”

“Not yet,” Aurora said. “Please, hold on.”

Mikris clicked her mandibles and ducked her head. She held Aurora’s hand tighter and kept pace with the Guardian, willing her heart to calm down. 

When they were out in the rain again, Aurora slowed and looked up. “Are you okay if we talk on my ship?” she asked. Her voice crackled a little.

“Um… yes,” Mikris said, soft, uncertain. 

“We won’t go anywhere, I promise, I just need… I need us to be somewhere safe.”

A Guardian jumpship came flying in from orbit. Saffron appeared beside Aurora as the ship hovered nearby.

Aurora kept her hand tight on Mikris’. “Hold on. It’ll be weird, but it’s okay.”

Mikris couldn’t ask what she meant before she felt herself… dissolving.

She grasped tighter at Aurora in her fear, but her vision blurred. 

It was only a second before reality solidified again, and she was in a warm, dry place, three hands grabbing the Guardian.

Aurora put her hand on Mikris’ shoulder with a gentle smile. “Sorry,” she said. “Transmat can be really weird the first time.”

Mikris slowly withdrew.

“Are you okay?” Aurora kept her hands on her, light and careful.

Mikris nodded. “Just… afraid?”

“You’re safe here, I promise.”

Mikris flicked her eyes around the ship. Small, but it seemed cozy. It was just big enough that Mikris could stand without bumping her head. “Your ship?”

Aurora nodded. “Sorry. I just… I don’t know what happened. I needed to be somewhere safe.” She sounded almost ashamed, looking down, shoulders hunched.

“Your Light… I… I never have see that. Was… was…” She shook her head in wonder. 

“Golden Gun,” Aurora murmured. She drew back into herself, arms over her chest. “I… haven’t used Golden Gun in a long time. I used to use it a lot, but… I’ve only used it a few times in years, since I joined the City. The last time I used it, I killed Skolas.” She made a strange hissing static sound. 

Mikris reached for her this time, very gingerly tapping her claws to her arm. “Why does it make you afraid?” she asked.

“It doesn’t. I don’t know,” Aurora said She shook her head. “It was all I knew when I was just a Risen. Before we were Guardians. Even for the first so many years at the City… but… fire never felt fast enough. I was too slow to protect people. I couldn’t rely on just my own Light. Void let me work with others, void let me stop our enemies before they could hurt anyone.”

“But your Light stop Wizards from hurt me,” Mikris said. She hesitated, and then asked softly, “Did you die?”

Aurora nodded. “I didn’t expect them to come behind us. I just… I got up and I saw you, and… and… I don’t know. I don’t know what happened. I think I got angry, that they were trying to hurt you. I was scared. But I usually would have felt void, I would have tethered them all, so why… why…” 

Mikris wasn’t sure exactly what she meant, but Aurora was clearly distraught about it. She touched her arm again. “Aurora? You… you need… comfort?” she asked.

Aurora looked at her in confusion. Mikris slowly held out her arms with a nervous chirp.

Aurora’s face was unbearable. She hissed static again and leaned in close.

She felt warmer than ever. 

Mikris embraced her this time, every arm wrapping around the Guardian. Aurora trembled a little, pressing her face into Mikris’ scarf. 

“I’m sorry,” Aurora mumbled into her scarf. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me.”

“Is okay. Am here,” Mikris said. She felt a purr start to rumble in her chest, and hoped it might help calm her.

Aurora was quiet for a second before she drew back a little bit. “What… what is…” 

Mikris flushed cold and heard herself purr louder when Aurora set a hand against her chest. 

“Are you purring?” Aurora asked, confused, but almost with wonder.

“Is that word?” Mikris asked, her voice a little rougher, gentler, with her purr. “Help comfort?”

“Oh,” Aurora said. “I didn’t know you could purr.”

Mikris nodded with a small chitter. 

“It’s… it’s nice,” Aurora whispered.

Mikris stood still as Aurora kept her hand on her chest. She tried to think about something else but the warmth of her strange fingers, the soft hum of the machinery in her chest, the intricate little movements of her face--

She was not doing a very good job.

She really hadn’t been able to think about anything else but Aurora since they’d met.

Oh, no, she thought.

Aurora blinked and looked up. “Oh. Um. Sorry,” she said, pulling her hand back.

Mikris ducked her head. “No, sorry,” she said instead, realizing her purr had gone silent. “Just… am think.”

“What about?”

Mikris shrugged. 

“I’m still not… making you feel uncomfortable?”

Mikris shook her head. “If make you happy, make me happy too. Am okay.”

“But if you… if I… I don’t want to… to…” Aurora frowned. “I’m…”

“Guardian,” Saffron’s voice said. 

Aurora angled her head a little. She was quiet. Could her Ghost speak to her silently? Mikris waited, but jumped when Aurora’s eyes widened and she straightened suddenly.

Aurora looked up at Mikris. 

Mikris stayed very still as Aurora reached up both hands. Nimble fingers brushed her hood. She stared at Mikris, but she waited, hardly breathing.

Aurora pushed back Mikris’ hood and carefully freed her helmet. 

Mikris blinked all her eyes at the Guardian and gasped in a little, seeing her with unfiltered vision for the first time, in light that wasn’t the rain-dulled atmosphere of Titan. 

“Can I be honest with you?” Aurora said softly.

Mikris nodded, still too stunned to speak.

“Sometimes humans do all that stuff ‘cause of… feelings, too.”

Mikris stared, Ether sluggish as her brain caught up. And then it quickened, chilling her with a flush, and she couldn’t stop the confused, tiny chirp.

Aurora laughed a little nervously. “And I don’t want to ruin our friendship, either. We can still be friends! But… um… I don’t know too much about how it works, exactly, for Eliksni.”

She was flustered. The Guardian, fidgeting, eyes flicking everywhere, lights bright--the exo’s version of a flush? 

“And I’m not sure if it’s like… not allowed, or anything, um, or if that’s like, if it’s weird?” Aurora shifted her weight, picking at her cloak. “And I know we haven’t known each other that long yet, either.”

Mikris blinked and angled her head. “Aurora?” she asked. “What you… what are you say? Saying?”

She couldn’t possibly be saying what Mikris thought she was saying. Was she?

Aurora slowly reached out her hand again to place it, fingers splayed, on Mikris’ chest. She looked up at her, just for a moment. Her jaw flickered teal with unspoken words lost in indecision. She withdrew her hand, but only to hold it palm-up. 

Something transmatted into her palm, and she held it out. “I remember learning that crystals are pretty well-liked by Eliksni. I’ve had this for a while, and I didn’t know what to do with it, but… I think I do now.”

Aurora offered a small but beautiful violet gemstone. Amethyst. 

Mikris reeled, a cloud of emotion welling inside her. 

She was dreaming, right? This was nothing more than that. But the warmth of the Guardian in front of her, the beating of her Ether through her body, the rasp of air through the serrations of her teeth, the glitter of teal on the facets of the gem, it definitely felt real. 

Slowly, claws shaking, she reached forward. She hesitated with her hand over Aurora’s. 

She could feel the deep rumble in her chest as she let her fingers close over the gift. 

Aurora’s face brightened, and Mikris’ purr heightened, her Ether jumping cold and quick as she ducked her head a little. 

Mikris didn’t take it yet. She warbled soft, uncertain, fidgeting her lower hands. “You… are… you are mean this?” she asked, nearly a whisper. “It is… it is very important, for Eliksni. I not anger at you if… that is not for humans. When we give, like this… Eliksni give for life. If not how is for humans, for Guardian, is okay, too. Just… for you to know.”

“Forever’s a real long time,” Aurora said. “Usually, humans have a time where we just… test the waters. Get to feel out how a relationship can go, I guess?”

Mikris angled her head a little. “Is that what you want? I can try ‘test the waters,’ yes.” She chittered shyly.

Aurora laughed, too. “Yeah, I think I’d like that. Y’know, I don’t think we’d be the first Guardian and Eliksni together.”

Mikris chirped. “Of all time Eliksni been on Earth?”

Aurora nodded. “I can’t say the thought never crossed my mind before, but… you’re really special, Mikris.” She smiled. “I used Golden Gun for you. That’s a bit of a big deal, I think.”

Aurora closed her fingers around Mikris’ to press the amethyst into her hand. Mirkis felt her purr grow louder.

“You really think I am special?” Mikris asked softly. “You only one to say that. I not think I am, but… you say so much, and… Guardians not say things not true, yes?”

“You are absolutely special,” Aurora said. “It doesn’t matter what the Captains and Barons and whatever want to tell you. You’re special to me. You’re sweet and curious and you have so much wonder about the world and I just want to do everything I can to keep you safe.” 

Mikris trilled softly and stepped forward a little. “Is… it is…” She clicked her mandibles and switched to Eliksni. “It’s just almost unbelievable… you’re the most legendary Guardian to have ever lived, and you are giving me, just a little nobody Marauder, such a beautiful gift?”

“I’m not really different from any other Guardian,” Aurora said. “Really, I don’t think of myself as better than anyone else or whatever. I’m just doing what a Guardian is supposed to do, fighting to protect the Light. And the gods I’ve killed have no impact on the fact that I don’t think I’ve been able to keep you off my mind since we met.”

Mikris chittered, a burst of nervous elation in her chest. “Yes, yes, I too!” she said. “Is hard not feel… feel… not know word, good feeling. To like you, when I am learn about you. And when touch much.” She took Aurora’s other hand in hers and blinked slowly at her, affectionately. “I know is human friendship, but… and you… you also…” 

Aurora held still as Mikris released her hand and very gently brushed her fingers at her jaw. “You’re a marvel to behold,” she murmured in Eliksni. “Worthy of so much… more beautiful than any gemstone in the universe.”

At the translation, which Mikris put to heart, Aurora’s lights flickered. Her jaw flickered colors, to Mikris’ amazement. “No one’s ever said anything like that before,” Aurora said softly.

Mikris nodded firmly. “Is true! I not know how human see you, but I am not human.”

Aurora laughed and leaned her face into Mikris’ palm. “You’re so sweet, Mickie,” she said. “And I’m glad I can see what you look like, now, too.” 

Mikris held still as Aurora reached up her own hand for her face. Her fingers were warm against her mandible, thumb rubbing gently over the keratin. She felt her secondary eyes drift half-lidded in contentment at the tender touch. 

“You’re really cute,” Aurora said, almost shy. 

Mikris burbled a flustered little laugh.

Aurora suddenly brightened. “Hey, I have an idea. What do you normally do with gems and stuff like this?” She tapped Mikris’ hand, over the amethyst.

“I not have any before… but other Eliksni have… have…” She huffed and switched back to Eliksni. “A lot of others have collections, displayed if they’re high enough rank. In the House it’s taboo to steal a bond-gift, punishable by docking or death or both.”

Aurora hummed a little. “Would you be okay to try something different?”

Mikris nodded, curious. 

Aurora let her take the gem and stepped back. Mikris froze when she drew her knife, but the Guardian let a lump of fabric transmat to her other hand. A cloak?

Mikris’ eyes widened in confusion as Aurora cut a long, narrow strip from the cloak. It was a ragged thing, scorched and tattered, white turned gray, a barely recognizable symbol half torn away. 

Aurora looked up at Mikris and sheathed her knife. She held up the cloak a little. “I was wearing it when the City fell,” she said softly. “It’s unusable, now, but I can’t get rid of it. It means too much. But I want you to have a piece of that. The memory of our Light, our hope, our home. It’s as much yours as mine.” She let the cloak transmat again and looked up. “Is it okay if I see the gem again, just for a second?”

Mikris held it out.

She watched as Aurora tied the strip of the cloak around the amethyst, making a loop. “Okay, hold still for me,” Aurora said.

Mikris held her breath as Aurora stood on her toes to place the loop over Mikris’ head. The gem sat nestled in her scarf.

Mikris reached a hand to touch it. She trilled and grasped for Aurora’s hand. “Thank you,” she purred.

“You look lovely,” Aurora said. She grinned, glowing bright. “Now you can carry it with you wherever you go! And if you need to, you can tuck it in and hide it in your scarf.”

“Why would… oh.” Mikris clicked her mandibles with dissatisfaction. “Other Eliksni maybe not… be okay.”

“You won’t be in danger, would you?”

She hesitated a long moment to think. “I… I not say to them. Maybe I say I have… I have… not know human-word?”

“Um… for the person you’re… with?”

“Yes?”

“There’s a lot of words. Uh, girlfriend? That’s kind of casual. Partner, significant other.”

She nodded. “Maybe say I have ‘girlfriend’ but not say who. Maybe… other time. When safe. Am happy, very happy, but… afraid.”

“You need to make sure you’re safe before anything else,” Aurora said with a nod. She looked worried. “But I don’t know how long I’ll be on Titan. We’re still trying to find Cayde and Ikora. I don’t want to leave you here. Can… can I take you with me?”

Mikris shook her head. “Ether,” she said, tapping her tank.

“I can… steal Ether.”

Mikris chittered. “No, no. I… I will be okay. We talk much, yes?” She brushed her communicator. “See what happen? You have important things to do. You are… hero.”

Aurora reached up both hands to cup Mikris’ face, fingers gentle and warm. “Just a Guardian,” she said softly. “I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe, I promise.”

“I not say same,” Mikris said a little dryly. “But I here for you.” She mimicked Aurora’s earlier touch, at Aurora’s chest. She hesitated a little, confused at the shape she hadn’t really been able to see well under her armor.

To her surprise, Aurora jumped, lights brightening. Mikris drew back her hand quickly with a worried warble. 

“Sorry!” Aurora exclaimed. “It, um. My turn for the awkward thing.”

Mikris blinked in confusion before she hunched her shoulders. “Sorry.”

You’re okay!” Aurora laughed, a little pitched. “You don’t really have the same sort of… body structures that we do. And exos are designed to be like humans.”

Mikris’ eyes widened, Ether flushing through her, mortified. “Oh! Oh, sorry, I’m sorry!”

“It’s not that big of a deal! I mean, I don’t think it is, compared to how other people see it, I guess.” She shrugged, still sort of giggling. “Caught me a little off-guard, is all.”

“I, um.” Mikris let a breath burble in the back of her throat for a moment, kind of dawdling. Her words were hesitant, quiet, a little higher-pitched. “Not… um… okay for… not that. Yet.”

Aurora looked a little confused for a few seconds before her eyes widened. “Oh, no, yeah, I totally get that, it’s fine! I wasn’t gonna ask about that! It’s a little early on.” She laughed. “Later. We’ll let things happen at their own pace.”

Mikris chittered soft, nervous relief. Not that she was opposed to the idea, of course, but not now, not yet. 

Later. Later, she thought. There would be a later--there would be plenty of time. She had to have hope. 

And it seemed humans, like Eliksni, had a slow period of relationship building. She didn’t know how long it would be, and she would be happy with however long it might be.

Aurora caught her hand and brought it to her face, pressing her mouth to her knuckles. Mikris wasn’t sure what it meant, but it seemed quite sweet. “When do you have to go back?” Aurora asked.

“A few hours,” Mikris said. 

“Hmm… okay.” Aurora nodded. “You wanna just fly around for a little while? And we can talk? Just like we always do.”

“Yes,” Mikris agreed easily. “I not see Guardian ships fly. Tiny things!”

Aurora laughed and pulled her to the front. “They can fly really fast, as little as they are! This isn’t even a really good one, either!”

Mikris braced beside the seat as Aurora sat at the controls. There were a lot of little buttons and switches, confusing in a different way than the dash of a Skiff. “Where we go?”

“Anywhere we want,” Aurora said. She brightened. “You know what? I’m gonna make another promise. Once we get the Traveler back, I’m gonna take you anywhere you want to go. Whatever planet. We’ll go explore anywhere you want. I’m a Hunter, we know all sorts of places no one else has ever seen. I’ve been all over the solar system.”

“I not been many places…”

“I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”

Mikris purred. “Your places you like most. I want to see those first.”

“Earth. My favorite place in the system. Earth’s my home.” Aurora tapped a few buttons. “As soon as we get the Traveler back, I’m bringing you home, Mikris.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more girls!!! more! yes!

They’d been apart for weeks. 

They talked as often as possible, worlds away from each other. Mikris would climb high into metal spires and stare up at the stars, where she thought Aurora might be. Each day she missed her more, heard the wistful note to Aurora’s voice.

The Guardian told her about Nessus, the strange little planet full of Vex. Mikris had heard before of it; other Fallen had followed a Guardian there, found scavenge and resources. Aurora told her delightedly about her mentor, finding him and saving him from Vex. 

“He’s smart, but also dumb,” Aurora had said with a laugh. “I guess it’s a Hunter thing, though. We’re all so impulsive. At least he’s okay.”

She told Mikris about Io, whispered about the Taken. Mikris shuddered in fear at the mention. She’d never really seen them herself; she didn’t want to. Aurora spoke about Ikora, worried about the Cabal’s schemes.

Mikris didn’t have nearly so many interesting things to discuss, but Aurora listened with her full attention nonetheless. She spoke of her Captain, her new crewmates. She told her about skirmishes with the Hive and how she’d used her growing fluency in the human language to furtively help the Lightless Guardians on Titan. 

She didn’t really know when she started thinking of Aurora less as a legendary Guardian. She became a beloved friend, her bond. She was treasuring her not for her might, but for her determination, her hope, her enthusiasm, her jokes. Aurora wasn’t filled with pride for the gods she’d slain, only a hope that she wouldn’t need to kill any more. 

When Aurora told her, “I’m coming back,” Mikris could hardly breathe with her delight. 

And nerves, for sure. They’d been apart for so long.

She waited eagerly, counting the days. Even her Captain noticed.

“You seem excited about something,” he commented, the day before Aurora was supposed to return.

She paused with her hands on the scraps of metal she was gathering to help repair a Skiff. “Nothing in particular,” she lied.

There was a glint in his eyes. “Is that so?” There was a teasing rumble to his words. 

Mikris tucked her chin a little when he looked pointedly at the gem nestled in her scarf. 

He chittered and heafted a beam into his arms. “Virsiks! This will do?”

The Vandal currently picking at wires in a broken radio looked up. “Yes, once we flatten it out, it should be sufficient for replacing the side. Damn Cabal.” He growled in annoyance. 

The Captain grunted in acknowledgement and hauled it to the transmat heap. 

Mikris looked up when he paused. 

His hand went to his communicator. “Yes? Yes. Is it, now? How much power did you say it’s producing? More than I thought, yes, very good. Do the humans know where it is? Ah, hm. Not ideal, but it’s not the worst situation. No, I know. Yes. I’ll need the Servitors. Send them right away. The sooner the better. The Skiff can wait.” 

He spun to face the crew. “Good news,” he announced, drawing himself up tall. “That reactor has been located. Or at least, a source of data that can help us find it. We have the opportunity to retrieve it.”

Mikris straightened, her own eager chirp joining the others’. 

“How much Ether could it make?” Virsiks asked.

“Enough to double what we can make, at least.”

They chittered with excitement.

“Whatever you have, it’s fine for now. We need to go now, before the humans locate it first.”

They packed quickly, swapping half-empty Ether tanks for fresh ones, retrieving spare charges for their weapons. Mikris felt nearly elated. If they could make that much more Ether… she didn’t know if she would get any more than her ration, but it would be good news for the little ones on her Captain’s Ketch, and that was good enough.

“It is Hive territory,” her Captain cautioned as he led them onward. They paused on a bridge for a Skiff to drop in and release a few Servitors. “We’ll move slowly. Be careful, and don’t take any unnecessary risks. There’s a terminal in here that should be able to locate the reactor Irksi found in other databases.”

The mentioned Vandal inclined her head at him. 

“We’ll need you to look into it. Mikris, if we need you to translate?”

She chirped. “Of course.”

They moved in.

Working with this crew was worlds smoother than with her former Captain’s. Her new commander was clever, quick; he should be a Baron by title, if the mysterious chaos at the top of the House would grant it to anyone. He commanded several smaller crews, his own Ketch, his own High Servitor. Mikris felt safer under his command than any other, even as they fought through Hive.

“Set up a barrier here,” he ordered. “We need to find the terminal. If any Hive come in, we can block them off.” He scoffed. “And any others of the House, for that matter.”

Mikris angled her head. She heard her confusion echoed in a few other chirps.

He glanced at his crew. “I don’t want another to snatch the reactor from us,” he said. “I’m not worried about them. Those under my command are my priority. They can find their own. Wouldn’t another Captain take all that Ether for themselves? We find this together, and we share the Ether.”

It was quite nearly treacherous to say it, but Mikris understood. She nodded, readying her blades to attack the Hive she could hear further on. 

Sure, of course the thing to do would be to give the reactor to their higher-ups, but Mikris trusted her Captain to use it for his crew. If the Kell didn’t care about all of them, why should they share their Ether? She could nearly imagine Aurora saying it.

Mikris felt a little jump in her chest. 

Aurora would be here tomorrow. 

Should she tell her of the reactor? Maybe she could help them find it. 

They fought forward. It was somewhat slow going, the Hive fighting back against them. No one had died yet; they hadn’t even had an injury more serious than scraped keratin and bruises. Mikris thanked the Light for their good fortune. 

Finally, they reached an airlocked door that led to some sort of control room. 

Her Captain stepped inside first, cautious, his shrapnel launcher raised and ready. He was quiet for several seconds before grunting. “Clear.”

Mikris, Irksi, and Virsiks followed him inside. It took another few minutes of scraping off Hive gunk to free the terminals they were looking for.

Irksi ran her fingers over it before clicking her mandibles. “It’s not in great shape,” she said dryly. “I’ll need a few minutes.”

Their Captain inclined his head. “Take your time. We’ll keep watch. Mikris, she may need you.”

Mikris chirped softly in agreement. 

Irksi got to work, grumbling to herself every now and then as she fought with the ancient, alien technology. She plugged a few cables into various outputs and into the kitbashed decoding device she’d constructed to take around with her.

After several minutes, the Captain jerked upright, hands flying to his communicator. “What?” He waved at Irksi, urging her to continue. “What do you mean? That’s--that’s impossible.” He flinched. “You’re serious. Stars save us. Irksi!”

She looked up.

“How close are you to finding that reactor?”

“I’ve narrowed down the location, but I’m trying to get the access codes to get to it. There’s a lot of security.”

He cursed. “We might not have time. Virsiks, get that other door open!”

“What’s going on?” Virsiks asked as he moved to the door. 

“We’re under attack.”

Mikris rested her claws on her blades. “Hive?”

“Guardians.”

Mikris froze.

No.

No, surely not. 

“But,” she started. “But there’s only one Guardian with Light, right?”

“So say the rumors. But the human scouts must have seen us coming here and alerted the Guardian.”

Mikris itched for her communicator.

Irksi jammed a data module into the terminal. “I’m just going to download all of this and go through it on the Ketch,” she said, tapping at the buttons. “We don’t have time.”

Virsiks grunted as he forced open the door. He jammed a lump of Hive chitin into it to keep it open. “There’s nothing on the other side! We’ll be okay for a while,” he said. 

“Come on, download faster,” Irksi snarled, scraping her claws against the terminal. “Mikris, what’s this say?”

Mikris stepped next to her and squinted at the text. She still struggled to read human text, but she was getting better at it. “Seventy… three percent?” She translated it. “It’s downloading faster than I would have expected.”

“Not as fast as I want it to.”

A cacophony of gunfire had them all flinching back. 

The Captain lunged forward and jammed the door into place. He pointed at Irksi. “Pause the download and lock the door!”

“Mikris,” Irksi said urgently. 

“There, that’s pause,” Mikris said, pointing. “Door operations… Uh… here, here, airlock controls.”

Irksi clicked through options until the airlock hissed sealed. “Resuming data transfer.”

The Captain stepped back, growling softly with worry.

“Ninety four percent,” Mikris said. “Almost done.”

“Come on, come on,” Irksi hissed at the terminal.

The door on the other side of the glass opened.

Mikris whirled around with a sharp gasp. 

Aurora stopped still, but she was looking at the Captain--

She didn’t recognize her. 

Any other Marauder. 

Irksi started yanking out cables. “Mikris, stop staring and help me!”

Mikris fumbled for the cables, heart in her throat. 

“Guardian!” the Captain yelled at the glass. “You’ve killed enough of us! No more!” 

At his commanding roar, Aurora steeled her fingers on her gun. 

He whirled. “Do you have it?”

“Yes!” Irksi replied, jamming the data module into a pouch. 

“Then go! Before it figures out how to open the door and kills us!”

Mikris felt sick, dizzy; Aurora wouldn’t hurt her--

But she could see Saffron scanning over the controls, Aurora ready to charge in.

Mikris moved, tapped her wrist, and Aurora’s helmet snapped to her. She flinched back, but keyed the comm, and watched her jolt.

She flicked her eyes to her crew, started following them to the other door at her Captain’s word, waited for them to look away. She lifted her hand to her throat and freed her amethyst from its hiding place beneath her scarf.

“Mikris!” she heard over her comm, terrified relief, and Aurora nearly dropped her gun, planting her hand at the glass and leaning forward.

Mikris hunched her shoulders and followed her crew.


	5. Chapter 5

She hunched in a corner, invisible, hardly breathing for fear of the sound. 

Boots landed soft, too quiet on metal.

She watched her from shadow, wanting to throw herself in the ocean.

“Mickie?” Aurora called. “Mikris, my love?”

There was a panicked static to her voice.

Slowly, Mikris crept forward, letting her stealth ripple away.

She flinched back at the snap of the Guardian’s helmet. 

Aurora’s vocal modulator made a glitched sound and she rushed forward. Her knees must have hurt with how hard she fell to them, but she didn’t react, instead, reaching out for Mikris. 

“I’m so sorry,” Aurora started. Her voice glitched and hissed. “I d-didn’t know-know it was you and your-your crew! I got here early-ly, and I wanted to find you, but-but Sloane said there was… that… she needed my-my help. The control center… the whole… it-it all could’ve sunk.”

Mikris curled tight into herself. “We weren’t looking for that,” she whispered. 

“The methane reactor?” Aurora guessed.

Mikris nodded. 

“Why?”

“Ether.”

“But… how… how can that… work?”

“Connect to Servitor. Could make… twice as much Ether. More.”

Aurora stared at her silently for a few long seconds. “Are you afraid of me?”

Mikris wrapped her arms around her knees. 

Aurora drew back, a terrible sound from her throat. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m putting you in even more-more danger. I wanted to protect you… I… I nearly…”

“I said before,” Mikris rasped. “I’m just a Marauder. Nobody. Fallen number millions, and I am just one.”

“No, it’s not true, you’re not nobody,” Aurora said.

“But you didn’t see me,” Mikris mumbled. “Just a Marauder. Just Fallen.”

“And it’s my fault, I was so caught-caught up and stupid and I should’ve just-just tried talking, but Sloane and-and Zavala were both on the comms-- I’m sorry. I’ll never let it happen again. I love you.”

Mikris looked up at her.

Aurora tugged off her helmet. Her eyes were flickering colors. “I mean it. I do. I love you, Mikris. How can I tell you that in Eliksni?”

Mikris felt her Ether lodged in her throat.

Slowly, she crawled forward into Aurora’s arms. She was cold, nearly as cool as herself now, and there wasn’t that smoke-scent anymore when she buried her face into Aurora’s armor as best she could without removing her rebreather. It was something more like metal, something that made her think of the old, deep forests of Earth she’d only been to a few times many years ago. She didn’t know what it was. 

Aurora pulled her close, fingers shaking, the machinery in her chest humming and catching. 

“Come with me,” Aurora murmured. “I want to keep you safe.”

“I can’t.”

“I’ll get Ether for you.”

“I’m the only one of my Captain’s crew who knows English. He needs me.”

“Can I help you, then?”

Mikris tightened her claws a little bit into Aurora’s cloak. “I don’t know. Irksi is looking for the location of the reactor…”

Aurora stilled. 

“Sloane needs it.”

Mikris drew back. “What?”

“We don’t have enough power. For the resistance here. We can’t keep the rig floating without it. But… but you need Ether…”

“This whole place will sink?”

“I don’t know. But she said that we can’t keep up. She’s going to want me to go get it when we get the location of it, too.” Aurora cupped Mikris’ helmet in her hands. “I don’t want to hurt your crew.”

“I can’t stop them from going for the reactor,” Mikris said. “I have to follow orders. My Captain is kind, but there is only so much I can do. But… I… I think ensuring humanity can defeat the Cabal… we can deal with our Ether rations now.”

“It isn’t fair,” Aurora whispered. 

“No. Eliksni have always suffered for the betterment of others.” Mikris shrugged. “But we can’t do anything about it.”

“But it’s not fair.” Aurora pulled her close again. “All I want is for you to be safe.”

“We’ve never known safety,” Mikris murmured, pressing into the Hunter. “I don’t think we ever will.”

“What if I talk to him? To your Captain? We can arrange something, right?”

“I don’t know.”

“What can I do?” She sounded helpless, her voice hissing static again.

Mikris let a hand cup Aurora’s face. “We’re looking for the reactor in the data we pulled,” she said softly. “We’ll have the entire crew go in and look for it. It’s likely surrounded by Hive, and everyone’s terrified after you showed up. There will be Servitors with barricades. He may even want to use his High Servitor.”

“I don’t want to break all your Servitors. You need those.”

“He might be willing to talk…” Mikris shook her head. “But getting you to him without either of us being hurt…”

“It’s okay if I do, I can come back. You can’t. And I won’t let you get hurt.”

“But I don’t care if you can come back. I don’t want you hurt, either.”

Aurora’s hands were gentle on her back, gripping Mikris’ feeble excuse for armor. “You’re such a good person,” she said softly. “You care so much about everyone. Even if I’m immortal… even when you’re afraid… I don’t want you to be afraid of me, love.”

“I think I’ll always be scared of everything,” Mikris admitted.

“I won’t hurt you. If I can get the reactor for Sloane… maybe we can find more somewhere on the rig. If we can work together… we use this one to stabilize it and make sure we don’t sink, and then we can find another way to make Ether. I don’t think Sloane would like it, she’s never been a fan of the Eliksni after Twilight Gap, but… I also don’t care. No one will say no to me when I’m the only chance we have.”

Mikris tightened her claws in Aurora’s cloak. “Do you think that could work?”

“I’ll make it work. I’m a Guardian, damn it. I’ve killed gods. I can find a way to help you make Ether.” Aurora sounded determined.

She couldn’t think of anything to say. She pressed herself close, curling into Aurora’s touch, seeking her comfort. 

She’d missed her. 

And she was still afraid, but the tenderness and little tremble to her fingertips… Aurora really was shaken by what happened. For all her strength in her Light, Aurora was alive, and Aurora cared about her.

Finally she had a question to ask. “Aurora?”

“Yes, love?”

“You’re cold. Why?”

“I’m cold?”

“The last time we were together, you were very warm. Now you feel more like me.” She drew back just enough to knit their fingers together. “And you smell different.”

“I… smell different?”

“Yes.” Mikris blinked. “Is that unusual?”

“I dunno. I didn’t think I really smelled like anything?”

“Everyone does… oh, you cannot smell as strong as we can?”

“Huh. Weird… cool, though. What do I smell like?”

“Forests. Cold, crisp weather. Nighttime.”

“The void.”

Mikris could taste the air, and the unpleasantness of Titan’s atmosphere seemed almost fuzzy for a moment. 

Aurora took her hand back and held it out. She curled her fingers, and deep shadows swirled in her palm, coiling around her, misty and glowing violet from within.

“What… what is… that’s void?” Mikris asked, hushed.

Aurora closed her fingers around it. “Yes,” she said softly. “I found it again. Ikora helped me find it again.”

“Why do you prefer it over fire? Or… you called it solar, right?”

She nodded. “It’s comforting, in a way. It… my best friend is a Voidwalker. A Warlock who uses the void. It tells him things, shows him things. Secrets, prophecies. A long time ago, he showed it to me. I was… in a bad spot, at the time. Lotta guilt.” She let her hand fall to her lap. “I let a lot of people die. Fire couldn’t save them. I couldn’t save them. But… I don’t fight alone. I’m a Nightstalker. That’s what they call us, Hunters who touch the void. We strike from the shadows, pin down our enemies before they can see us, before they can strike first.”

She wasn’t sure what that all meant, but Aurora spoke of it with a strange tone. Nearly reverent; the way one might speak of their Prime. Great respect, something not quite like love, and something not quite like fear. 

Aurora looked at her. “Does that make you more afraid? A lot of Guardians are uneasy with the Void. Hunters, especially. I can already tell it’s different.”

“If it what makes you feel most--”

“No, no, darling, not me.” Aurora took Mikris’s upper hands in both of hers. “You. I don’t want to frighten you, to make you feel like you’re in danger when you’re with me.”

Mikris slowly rubbed her thumb over Aurora’s hand as she thought. “I… don’t know,” she admitted finally. “I don’t think I’ve had enough experience with Light yet. But your Light… it… it gives me hope.” 

She set her hand on Aurora’s chest, closer to her throat. She could feel the whir of the machinery beneath her fingers, the steady beat of a mechanical heart. “And you, too. I know you are dangerous. And I am afraid. But I care about you. And perhaps it’s selfish of me to want to be with you, but… I don’t think I care. I feel hope for myself, for my people. I feel… like I am someone when you look at me. When you feel this strongly when you didn’t recognize me at first. When you spend time talking with me, listening to me, even though I’ve never done anything nearly as incredible as anything you’ve ever done. My life has always been… mundane.” She scoffed softly, fingers curling a little, limp against Aurora.

“Really,” Mikris went on, quieter, “the most interesting thing that happened to me before I met you was the murder of my sister. And even that is not entirely out of the expected for Fallen.”

“Mickie,” Aurora said, catching her wrist loosely. “You’re not special ‘cause of me. You’re special just ‘cause of you! I mean, you stared down a Guardian and asked me to help you. You’re so brave! Even if you’re afraid, you can still be brave. And… well, you say all these things about me… if you’ve got the ‘legendary Guardian’ just so absolutely smitten…”

Mikris chirped with a flush. Aurora laughed softly and leaned in to press her forehead to Mikris’ helmet. 

“We’ll get through this, Mickie, I promise,” Aurora said softly. “Together.”

Mikris nodded and let Aurora pull her in for another embrace. “Maybe you can talk to my Captain,” she murmured. “If we tell him that without the reactor, the rig could sink…”

“If that weren’t the case, I’d be more than happy to get it for you all, but… I’d rather this last front not get swallowed up by the sea.” Aurora shook her head. “But not now. Not yet. I just want to spend time with you. I missed you so much.”

Mikris burrowed her face into Aurora’s cloak. “You were out being a hero.”

“Yeah, but without you!”

She chittered. “We are together now.”

“We are,” Aurora agreed.

Mikris jumped back with a trill. “I just remembered! I have something for you!”

Aurora blinked in surprise. “You do?”

Mikris nodded. “Yes! But I had to hide it.” She jumped to her feet and held out two hands. “Come with me?”

Aurora took her hands. “Lead the way.”

Mikris lead Aurora through the rig for the stash she’d been keeping well hidden. She had to duck around corners a few times when she heard chatter of her Housemates wandering past on patrols. Eventually, though, Mikris was tugging open the door to the tiny room hiding her little cache. 

She grabbed the box secured to a shelf and crouched to dig through it, holding her secondary hands out for balance, until she pulled out a heap of violet fabric. She straightened and looked at Aurora with a little chirp. 

“I know cloaks are important for Hunters. You were very sentimental about yours. I cannot replace it, but… you are Eliksni to me. You are my hope for myself and my people. I am not sure if I am able to welcome you on behalf of all of us, but I will anyway.”

Mikris held out the cloak she had made.

Aurora slowly reached out and took it. Her eyes were wide. She ran her fingers over the cloth and then looked up at Mikris. “You made me a cloak, love?” she asked. 

Mikris nodded, a little shy.

Aurora found the hood of it and shook out the cloak to look at it better. Mikris wasn’t the best at fashioning armor, but she did her best, and she hoped it would be good. 

“Oh, it’s so good, Mickie, I love it!” Aurora exclaimed, lights bright. She moved quickly to swap her cloaks, letting the Dusk-violet fabric fall along her back. She drew up the hood and adjusted the fur collar. “It’s wonderful!”

Mikris trilled. “I’m glad you like it!”

Aurora threw her arms around Mikris in an eager embrace. “It means a lot,” she said, softer now. “Cloaks are a big deal for us. It’s not just fashion or anything.”

“I thought as much,” Mikris said, letting her hands settle under the cloak, on Aurora’s back, a little rumble starting in her chest. “Like our banners. I’m welcoming you as one of us.”

Aurora spoke Eliksni in her response. “I’m honored.”


	6. Chapter 6

It reeked of Hive. Of the Dark. It coiled cold and damp and foul in her throat. 

It smelled like decay. 

Like death.

Mikris cowered behind her Captain. 

Comms were down. Irksi was limping. Virsiks was shaking as he clutched the stump of one of his arms. Mikris couldn’t look at him with his blood on her blades. He didn’t blame her, and they had no choice; the limb had been stuck in airlock, crushed so badly his screams echoed in her skull. Still, she felt sick with guilt. 

The Hive chittered and clicked around them, their crude language spearing into their skulls and driving away any hope and memory of Light. The glowing green eyes of Acolytes bobbed with their slow circling in the shadows, and the Thrall lurked, hungry, waiting. Waiting.

“What do we do now?” Irksi whimpered. 

“I don’t know,” was the response. “I… I’m thinking. Give me a minute.”

They were trapped. If the barrier stayed up, they were safe until they ran out of Ether. If the barrier went down, they would be consumed by the Hive surrounding them.

The Hive knew it, too. 

They were doomed. They would die here, sacrificed to some awful god, tortured, Mikris felt sick with the thought of their awful worms and their glinting claws and the stinking viscous fluid that leaked from the egg sacs--

There was gunfire.

Mikris jerked up her head. She knew that weapon--a hand cannon. 

“Guardian,” she whispered. 

Her crewmates hissed. “It’ll kill us,” Irksi said, fear pitching her voice. “We’re trapped in here!”

“Wouldn’t you prefer a swift death from a Guardian, than tortured by the Hive?” Virsiks said darkly.

“No, no,” Mikris said, lifting her head a little. For the first time since they had delved into this hell, she felt a glimmer of hope. “What if I talk to the Guardian?”

“Do you think it’ll listen?”

She warbled softly, staring out through the barrier. “Can I try?”

“I don’t want you putting yourself in danger,” her Captain said uncertainly. 

“More than what we are already in?” She looked up at him, then flinched. “Sorry.”

“No, I suppose you aren’t wrong.” He growled with worry.

Muzzle flashes lit the nearly pitch-black room, dropping Thrall into dust and bone. Mikris stepped closer to the barrier, only to jump back again at the screech of the Hive. 

A small light showed Saffron’s position, floating above the terminal they’d used. 

Mikris gasped and pushed back to the barrier. “No!” she yelled, waving a hand. “No, don’t open it!”

Aurora looked up at the movement. Mikris saw her jolt and reach for her Ghost. She couldn’t hear anything clearly from here, but Saffron retreated, and spun her shell in clear alarm. Aurora said something else, and nodded at whatever Saffron replied with.

The other barrier between Aurora and the rest of the room opened, but Mikris’ crew was still trapped, away from the Hive. 

Aurora stared down the Hive and--

Mikris felt awe bubble in her chest.

Aurora pulled back her arm as a strange weapon appeared in her hands. Whatever it was, it earned a sharp sound from her Captain. 

A bolt of void plunged into the ground, and lashing ropes of swirling violet shot out to grasp at the Hive. They screeched, fighting against the void, but Aurora gunned them down where they stood.

That was what she meant. 

Pinning her enemies down was literally pinning them into place with her Light.

“What was that?” Irksi asked, terrified, awed.

“I don’t know what Guardians call it, but her weapon is called a bow,” the Captain rumbled, watching Aurora destroy the Hive with single focus. “The Awoken used them. Siyuriks, in particular, was a master of such a weapon. Almost primitive, but terrifying in the right hands. Like the way they can summon hammers of flame. Their Light becoming literal weapons… but I’ve never seen this before.”

Mikris kept her mandibles closed. 

She twitched at a sound and rapped her claws on the barrier to get Aurora’s attention. She pointed to another door, where glittering green eyes were blinking as they approached.

Aurora nodded and lifted her gun.

Mikris watched helplessly as Aurora became a one-man army. She ducked and dodged between the Hive, her form flickering into shadow, like her own stealth. Flames of purple burst from her hand, burning through the Hive. She was beautiful, and Mikris was terrified that her Light would be smothered, snuffed out by the Darkness in the claws of the Hive.

But it wasn’t. Aurora stood still, wary, waiting, when the last Acolyte crumbled. 

Slowly she turned to the barrier and walked forward, lowering her hand cannon. 

It was a strange height, the barricaded part of the room raised above the center. Mikris crouched and pressed a hand to the barrier. She could feel Aurora’s smile as her amethyst swung free at her neck. “Hello,” Mikris said in English. 

“Hey,” Aurora replied. Her voice was a little muffled, but from here, audible. “Are you okay?”

“No. We’re stuck.”

“You look it. Do you need help?”

“Yes, please.”

“Do they know?”

“No.” Mikris tugged at her cloak a little nervously. “But maybe we can talk to him about it, now?”

“That might be a good idea, sure,” Aurora agreed. “I already chatted with your friends out there. I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”

Mikris sighed in relief. “Even the Servitors?”

“Even them, yeah. Once I helped clear out Hive, explained that I wasn’t here to fight them, they were uneasy, but let me through anyway.”

“They were probably afraid. You could easily kill them.”

“But I didn’t, and I don’t want to.”

Mikris held back a pleased coo.

“Your Captain’s giving me the stink eye,” Aurora said. She sounded worried. “Are you guys hurt?”

Mikris tucked her head. “I’m alright, but… my friends… they’re not. When we get back to the Ketch for medical attention…”

“Was he docked?” Aurora sounded alarmed now.

“No, no, not like that!” Mikris couldn’t even glance at her friend. “He was hurt. His arm was trapped… crushed. It should grow back, but it was easier and safer to just do this.”

“Stars, that’s awful. I’m sorry.”

“Mikris?” her Captain asked.

“The Guardian is… sympathetic,” she said. “She wants to help us. But she needs the reactor.”

“We need the reactor.”

“If the humans don’t get it for their power source… the entire rig might sink.”

They were silent for a few seconds. 

“You said other things to the Guardian,” her Captain said. “I do know a little human-speak.”

Mikris froze.

“You spoke like friends.”

Mikris cowered a little lower. She could feel Aurora looking at her in worry. 

“Mikris?” Irksi asked in confusion.

“Saff,” Aurora said urgently. “Open it, quick, get it open, I need her.” 

The Ghost zipped to the terminal.

There was a soft thud as Aurora hit her hand on the barrier to get their attention. “Don’t hurt her!” Aurora pleaded in Eliksni. “I can explain--ack!”

Aurora stumbled forward into the raised floor when the barrier vanished. 

Mikris’ crew retreated with fear.

“Wait, it’s okay, I promise!” Aurora assured, holstering her gun and raising her hands. “I won’t hurt you! Look, I can help! I know you want the reactor for Ether, but we need it to keep the power going. If we lose power, the whole place is going to sink, and everyone here will die. This is the last front for the Guardians to take the Great Machine back from the Cabal. If you help me get this reactor, I’ll see if there might be another one somewhere here that you can use!”

“You speak our language,” the Captain said softly. He narrowed his eyes. “You wear our banner?”

Mikris shied closer to Aurora. If this went poorly, the Guardian could protect her. “I taught her. And I gave her that cloak,” she confessed in a burst. “I befriended her months ago. She killed my old Captain. She killed Raviks because I asked her to save me from him. And now she wants to save us all, all Eliksni.”

Aurora nodded. “I’ve seen how awful it is and I hate that you have to suffer. It’s not fair. I want to help. I want to bring your people back to the Light.”

“You… gave her… a cloak,” Irksi whispered.

Mikris hunched in on herself, reaching almost instinctively for the gem at her throat.

Irksi gasped. “Mikris, you’re bonded to a Guardian?”

Mikris flushed cold. 

“It's not that surprising,” said the Captain slowly, cautiously. “There were Wolves who bonded with Awoken.”

“But a Guardian? Mikris?”

Aurora started to reach out for Mikris, but paused. “You're all really lucky Mikris is on your crew. Not just 'cause of me. She's a wonderful person.”

They were silent for several long seconds.

“The reactor,” her Captain said finally. “We can help you retrieve it.”

Aurora sighed in relief. “And I'll help you find another way to make more Ether, too. It'll be… kind of difficult. I'm not going to be here for long. Once we have the rig stable, I need to go back to Earth.”

“To retake the Great Machine. Your City.”

“Yes. Without the Light… without Guardians… what can stop the worst from happening? The Cabal are a bloodthirsty empire. The Vex want to turn every scrap of matter in the solar system into their machines. The Hive just want to destroy everything, to consume the Light! But we aren’t so different. We’re both chosen people, and we both know how it feels to have had and lost the Light, and how it feels to be refugees, and to lose all your hope. But I want to change that. We’re more alike than not, and I don’t see why we can’t be friends.”

“There are centuries of war between our people,” Mikris’ Captain said with a note of caution. “Do you think Guardians would be willing to ally with us?”

Aurora nodded. “Absolutely. A lot of us, at least. Mikris said you were a Wolf once, right? With the Awoken?”

Mikris ducked her head at his glance. He looked back at Aurora with an affirming grunt.

“So it’s not so strange that we can be allies,” she said. She paused. “Did you… know Skolas?”

He snarled. “The traitor.”

“Oh, good. I killed him.”

He drew up a little straighter. “In the Prison?”

Aurora nodded. “Yep. That was me.”

He was quiet for a few long seconds before he lowered his chin and extended a hand palm-up. “Allies, then,” he said. “We will help you find the reactor. If it can prevent more death, then I am willing to help.”

“And I’ll see what I can do to help with your Ether,” Aurora replied, sounding almost excited. “It’ll be hard, with the Cabal, and all that, but I’ll do whatever I can.” She paused. “We should probably get out of here soon before the Hive come back, though.”

Mikris shuddered at the thought and felt Aurora’s cool fingers brush her arm. 

She looked up, though, to her Captain. 

His eyes fell on her, calculating. 

Finally he leaned forward and extended a hand. “To your feet,” he rumbled.

Mikris gaped at him for a second before accepting his help. 

He chuckled at her. “What?”

“Misraaks?”

“I am not one to tell you who you can and cannot love, Mikris. Convention be damned. Perhaps for other Houses, it might be strange, but it is not so for Wolves. And that doesn’t matter at all, now, does it?”

She cooed softly in relieved gratitude and felt Aurora’s fingers at the wrist of a secondary hand, minding her daggers. 

“Stay close,” Aurora said, drawing her hand cannon. “I’m not sure if there’ll be more Hive, but I helped clear out all that I could on the way here. And I didn’t hurt anyone, either.”

Misraaks angled his head at her. “How did you get here? My Servitors…”

“I just talked to everyone,” Aurora said. “I tried to ping Mikris, but…”

“Comms are down,” Mikris told her. “Something with the Hive.”

Aurora winced. “Yeah, let’s get out of here fast.”


	7. Chapter 7

They hunched around the communicator. 

None of the Guardians knew of their secret audience, save the one transmitting the data. 

The plan to retake the City. 

Misraaks looked focused as he crouched with his head cocked, listening intently. Mikris could almost hear him thinking as they listened to the City Vanguard.

Mikris felt shivers of fear deep in her chest. Aurora would be in so much danger. So far from Earth… No one could save her if something happened.

But Aurora was determined. Mikris could hear it in her voice.

But the other Guardians… the Lightless ones… 

“We could help,” Misraaks said slowly. “If we can distract enough of the Cabal to keep them away from where the humans will break in…”

“Some of us can sneak in. Look for commanders,” Mikris suggested. “Or communicators, generators, anything that might set them back, disadvantage them.”

“What if we go in earlier?” Irksi said. “At another front. We fake an attack on the City, pretend like we’re taking advantage of the war. We keep far enough back that we don’t lose anything, but enough to force the Cabal to move troops in that direction.”

“Brilliant,” Misraaks said with a firm incline of his head. “We will have to wait for Aurora to return. And we’ll need a map of the City.”

“I’ve never seen it,” Mikris said thoughtfully.

“Nor I,” Misraaks told her.

“I have,” Virsiks said. “At the Final Attempt. It’s massive.”

She looked wistfully at him. “Did you… did you see…”

“The Great Machine? Yes.” He blinked, looking in the distance. “It’s… I cannot describe it.”

“We’ll see it soon,” Misraaks promised. “We need to prepare.”

Prepare they did.

The House had no idea what Misraaks and his loyal crew planned. With the help of the lone Guardian, they began to gather munitions, planned battle routes, learned basic English, enough to help them survive if they encountered any other humans during the battle. 

Misraaks’ Servitors were just as determined. They took well to Aurora, as she sat careful guard over them as they made Ether, stored caches and tanks of it on Skiffs and in hidden places across the system.  

She was the first non-Eliksni to set foot on the Ketch, and she was awed when she first transmatted to it to discuss plans with Misraaks. 

“Whoa,” she murmured. “I haven’t been on a Ketch since… wow. This is so cool!”

Mikris chittered. “Is it?” she asked, curious.

“Yeah!” She looked awed, her eyes wide. 

“When were you on a Ketch before?” Mikris asked.

Aurora grimaced. “Winter, when I killed Draksis. And then also… Taniks,” she grumbled.

Mikris winced. “Was he as bad as the rumors said?”

“Worse,” she muttered darkly. “I killed him twice myself.”

“Twice?”

“Cayde killed him twice, too, before I went in after him.” She shook her head. “Can’t think about that now. I’ll tell you about it later, okay?”

Mikris burbled in agreement and led the Guardian from the transmat zone. She much preferred Eliksni transmat to the kind that humans had developed. It didn’t feel so jarring, like her edges were being pulled apart. Aurora kept close behind her.

Although everyone else had been warned, there were still gasps of fear and awe when the Guardian appeared. Aurora froze, flicking her eyes between the Eliksni staring at her. Slowly, she raised a hand to wave at them. “Um… Velask,” she said to them.

Mikris couldn’t help a little chitter of amusement. It broke the tension, and a few returned the gesture with shallow bows and soft growls.

“This way,” Mikris said, offering a hand. She noticed the stares of her fellow crewmates, but when Aurora’s cool fingers laced with hers, she felt a little burst of courage. Aurora seemed as relaxed as ever with the open affection. 

She led her through the Ketch, still fidgety and jumping a little, but knowing Aurora’s presence kept her safe. None of the Captains she passed could touch her. 

It was also strange, that she was no longer just a little Marauder, not to her crew. She was Mikris, chosen of Chosen, translator and scout, bridge between Eliksni and humankind. 

And stranger still that Misraaks was so quick to turn sides. Not against their people, no. Just to turn his allegiance from Kell to the Light. Every Eliksni on the Ketch, everyone who remained loyal to him, was willing and eager to befriend humanity--or at least, to fight alongside them. 

Mikris suspected the thought had been on Misraaks’ mind for some time, and Aurora was the catalyst for the unofficial but very real defection of him and his crew from the House of Dusk.

The world had turned on its head for her a dozen times over. 

Phaloriks would be proud of her, she thought with a shimmer of hope in her chest, as she led the Guardian through the Ketch. 

Her little sister would not lay eyes on the Great Machine. Mikris would have to help save it for her.

“There’s a lot of Eliksni here,” Aurora commented. “I didn’t realize how big your Captain’s crew was.”

Mikris chirped in agreement. “He should be a Baron, if the Kell used those titles anymore. Kings were such a large House already. When we combined into one House, it was too difficult to name Barons. I’m not sure what that would do if the Kell…”

“If he… died?”

“I don’t know what would happen.” Mikris clicked her mandibles with unease. “Chaos, surely. More than there already is… but we may not even experience it. Misraaks isn’t reporting back to the Kell anymore.”

“I thought you had said something about that… so you’re not in the House of Dusk anymore?”

“I’m not sure,” Mikris admitted. “We… might be able to leave entirely, I think. We have enough Servitors that Ether won’t really be a problem… and that’s the only thing that really keeps anyone with swaying loyalty from leaving.”

“Do you think this might be a new House?”

Mikris let her thoughts burble behind her teeth for a few seconds. “Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t think I… would be opposed to it, if Misraaks wanted that.”

“A House allied with humanity… no, not just with humans, but with the Light.” Aurora grinned bright teal. “That’d be amazing!”

Mikris chirped in agreement.

It wasn’t long before she was slowing down before the biggest, most secure airlock. She held out a hand over the panel beside the door and after a moment, it hissed open to reveal the bridge of the Ketch.

It was lined with monitors, with various Eliksni tapping at screens and barking to each other. Shanks floated about carrying data pads and modules, and two small Servitors burbled idly, assisting when needed. The largest screen projected a few different views of the outside of the Ketch--empty space above, the Earth below, idle Skiffs scattered around as they hovered stealthed in low Earth orbit. 

At the large central table covered in maps, data pads, and holoprojections, Misraaks stood at the head of it, poring over a series of reports and tapping at a data pad in his secondary hands. Three more Captains she didn’t know personally stood around the table, two talking softly as they ran fingers over a map. Virsiks and Irksi were waiting as well, and Misraaks’ personal guard stood at either side of him. Mikris wracked her brain for a second to recall their names. Kalvor and Avrhis.

Misraaks looked up at the hiss of the door, as did most of the others. He straightened and swept around the table. Kalvor and Avrhis followed dutifully, eyeing Aurora warily.

Misraaks held his left hands outstretched and gave a shallow bow. “Guardian,” he rumbled. “Good to see you again.”

“You, too,” Aurora responded, returning the formal greeting. Incorrectly, but thoughtful nonetheless. Mikris felt a little smile behind her mask.

Misraaks chuckled. “In another circumstance, an esteemed guest such as yourself would be given a more in-depth tour. However, time is not on our side.”

Aurora nodded. “No, I understand, it’s fine.”

He angled his head with a gesture to follow him. 

The Captains quieted as Misraaks returned to the head of the table. He gestured for Aurora to move beside him. Mikris was encouraged to stand beside her. She felt a little thrill. She was at the table in the bridge! 

Misraaks leaned forward, two hands on the table as he reached for one of the maps. “This is the most recent plan of attack, yes?” he asked, getting right down to business. 

Aurora brushed her fingers across the page. “Yep, that looks right,” she said. “The Guardians will be splitting up and pushing in through the Peregrine District, here.” She pointed to the already marked region. “Ghaul’s command ship has been hovering somewhere around here” --she tapped the page-- “so Cayde’s setting up the Vex teleporter on this building for our invasion on the ship.”

Misraaks growled in understanding. “How many Guardians will be boarding the ship?”

“As many as can make it,” Aurora said, unusually serious. “We’re going to storm it.”

“But you will be off-world,” Misraaks said.

“I’ll be back by then,” Aurora said. “Everyone’s splitting up. Cayde and some of the Hunters are going in first, to pick off what they can. There’s a break in the wall here that they’re going in through. Zavala, Ikora, Hawthorne, and Shaxx each have another group, as well. No one will start the invasion until I’ve brought down the Almighty.”

Mikris shifted uneasily. She didn’t want to say it, didn’t want to think it--

“What if you do not?” Misraaks asked.

“We all die. The Cabal destroy the sun, and everything in the system goes with it. Including the Great Machine.”

There was silence.

Misraaks took a breath. “Do not fail, Guardian,” he said. 

“I won’t,” she said, determination fierce on her face. “I am not letting that thing destroy our sun.”

“If,” Misraaks said, “you do destroy the Cabal’s sun-destroying machine, but you cannot return.”

“My Ghost will alert the Guardians the second it’s down. Even if… even if I have to sacrifice myself to do it, she’ll have at least another few seconds to send the message off. Enough time for the attack to start.”

Mikris worked her fingers into her cloak with anxiety.

Misraaks lowered his head in understanding.

“But,” Aurora said, “I don’t plan on dying, so as soon as I take down the Almighty, I’m coming back. It’ll take me a few minutes to fly back.”

“Good,” Misraaks growled. “We’ll need every advantage we can against them.” He shifted and tapped at a data pad. Holographic markers appeared on the map. Red, blue, green, marked with symbols. “We’ve been trying to predict the best routes of our own attack.”

They watched the markers move. The red ones moved inside the City, mimicking Cabal ships. The blue ones clustered at the walls, representing the Guardians. The green ones moved outside the walls. 

“We need to be near enough to pull forces from this district,” Misraaks said. He hovered his hands over the map, guiding the markers. “This region is far enough that we will likely not encounter Guardians, but should pull forces from the Cabal.”

Aurora leaned over the table to see better. She nodded. “The next district over, yes. As far as I know, it should still be in relatively one piece. Mostly civilian apartments…” She tapped the map. “The canal goes through here. You could take Pikes in, if you needed to. The canal was dried up last time I was there. I remember reading reports that the wall here is broken, so you can get in that way and turn down these streets.”

Misraaks listened intently. “We’ll avoid moving inside the buildings--”

“It doesn’t matter.” Her voice was quiet, flat. “Everyone there is probably dead or a refugee by now. If you need to take cover inside, or go through any buildings for shortcuts, it’s fine.”

He lowered his head. “We’ll be cautious all the same.” After he pause, he switched topics. “When is the best time for our incursion?”

“I’m not… completely sure,” Aurora said. “Too early, and you could get stretched too thin. Too late, and it may not be fast enough to get enough Cabal away from the Guardians.” She sighed and leaned on the table, thinking.

Mikris clicked her mandibles and warbled soft to catch their attention. She ducked her head at the eyes that looked to her, but spoke anyway. “I had thought about it earlier. If we can send in just a few first,” she said softly, “to scout? We can look through the district for commanders, generators, and anything else important. Maybe even take some down before the Guardians arrive. We can mark routes for the quickest way to rally points around debris.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Aurora said thoughtfully. “It’ll be dangerous, though…”

“I know. But I can do it--”

Aurora jolted. “Wait,” she started.

“She is talented at what she does,” Misraaks said calmly. “I would trust no one more.”

“But,” Aurora started, English glitching in her fear. “But what if you… what if…”

Mikris responded in kind. “Then I’ll die protecting you. You’ve died for me before.”

“But I can die over and over.”

Mikris shook her head. “If I die for the Light, it will be worth it. I will try not to, of course, but… all of you Guardians are risking everything for this. If there is any Light left in my people, then we are willing to do the same.”

Aurora’s modulator hissed in static and her fingers tightened against the table. She glanced at the watching Eliksni and took a breath. “Okay,” she breathed out. “Okay. I’m okay.”

Mikris tapped her arm gently. 

“Guardian,” Misraaks said, softer than before. “You fear for Mikris.”

Aurora nodded.

“Have faith in her,” Misraaks told her. He looked to Mikris as he went on. “She is good at what she does; a lesser known talent of hers. What is it you humans call it? ‘Good luck’? She brings that about with her. She, and the rest of my Marauders, are seasoned soldiers. They can and will find and then provide valuable information to the Guardians, take out threats that Lightless humans cannot. We are stronger, more resilient, older than humans. Our technology surpassed yours centuries ago.”

“I know,” Aurora said softly. She sighed. Her jaw flickered with words unsaid.

“We have little other choice, anyway,” Misraaks added dryly. “And our assistance to reclaiming your City will not even be known.”

“It will,” Aurora said, looking up at him. “Maybe not now. But I’ll know. And when the people are ready to hear it, I’ll be the first to tell them all. And the Light will know. The Great Machine will know.”

Mikris felt a little shiver at that.

Would it, indeed?

It slumbered for so long…

Did it matter? If she could do what Aurora did… if she could help save people…

Misraaks blinked slowly in understanding and looked back at the map. “We’ll go with that plan,” he said. “We run the risk of alerting the Cabal to a Fallen attack. But that is good news for the humans. If they are preparing for an incursion from us, they won’t expect humans on the other side.”

“How will we get information to the Guardians?” Virsiks asked. “If they aren’t supposed to know about us?”

Misraaks growled soft at the map, thinking.

“I… could tell Cayde,” Aurora said. “The Hunter Vanguard. I can trust him to keep a secret, and to make sure everyone gets the right information.”

“You are sure of this?” Misraaks asked her. 

She nodded. “The Hunters are going in first, sort of how the Marauders will. But probably after you guys go in. So it’ll be… Marauders, then while I’m breaking the Almighty the Hunters go in, and then you guys, and then when I break the Almighty the Guardians move in, and then I’ll come back. And we’ll kill Ghaul.”

“We will stay in this sector,” Misraaks said. “We’ll keep the Ketch low and stealthed, and only uncloak it to alert the Cabal. Skiffs will have to avoid flying over the City. And… Walkers… I can’t risk deploying too many. Mine are numbered at the moment, and I get the feeling that the House won’t be too keen on sharing more with me.” He scoffed softly, looking over a report. Mikris could see it was numbered--a list of assets. “But enough to try shooting down Threshers and other Cabal ships should be fine. Three, perhaps?”

“Compared to how many Eliksni there are,” Aurora said with a frown, “one Ketch worth is… not much of an army… especially against all the Cabal…”

“We need to make it look like we have more than we do,” Mikris said.

Misraaks stared at the map for several seconds, deep in thought. “Guardian,” he said finally, speaking slowly. “I have an idea. During the Scatter, the two-soul kingdom used a weapon for which we have no name but utter destruction. It was what killed our Kell and a massive portion of our initial fleet. I learned later that this was the only time during the war that this weapon was truly used. We had, for a while, believed they were used twice. The second time was an illusion.”

“The Harbingers,” Aurora said. The name made Misraaks and other former Wolves twitch nervously. “I remember hearing that, yes. The, uh… the Pallas siege?”

Misraaks nodded once. 

“You’re suggesting we make illusions of more troops,” Aurora said. She straightened in interest. “It could be doable, especially considering the nature of your cloaking technology. If we can scramble and boost encrypted signals, just mostly garbage… the Cabal will pick up more radio chatter than we’ll really be using.”

Mikris clicked her mandibles hesitantly before speaking. “Could we use holograms?” she asked. “I’m not sure how much power it might take to do that, but if we can project illusions, or at least ripples that look like stealthed Skiffs, Ketches, troops waiting outside the walls?”

“That could work,” Misraaks said, sounding interested. He tapped the data pad to project a new hologram over the table. “If we could get enough power… we can adapt some of the onboard weapons. Here, and here.” The projection above the table was of the Ketch. Two of the weapons on the side highlighted.

“One on the back, as well?” suggested one of the other Captains.

Misraaks angled his head and highlighted it. “Yes, excellent. We’ll have less firepower, but the illusion could work.”

“The Cabal are pretty stupid,” Aurora scoffed. “They’ll fall for it.”

“How do we get the power we’ll need?” Irksi asked. “That’s a big projection. My team and I can rig it up, but it’ll demand a lot.”

“I might have an idea,” Aurora said. “Do you have ways to store power?”

“Yes, but holoprojections are costly,” Misraaks warned. “We have energy storage units, but they’ve been through a lot. We’re repairing them but they don’t have a lot stored.”

Aurora nodded. “It’s okay. I can fill them up.”

“They’ll need arc energy,” Irksi warned.

Aurora stretched out her hand, and the collected Eliksni gasped in awe at the sparks that flitted over her fingers. “It’s not my favorite to use, but I can do it.”

Irksi brightned. She beamed at Mikris. “Your Guardian is going to be a fantastic asset,” she said.

Mikris flushed at the chitters that earned. 

Aurora brushed their fingers together before looking determined at Misraaks. “You’re going to be heroes,” she said solemnly. “All of you. This is going to be the start of a new beginning.”

“Are you sure this will work, Guardian?” Virsiks asked, eyeing Aurora. 

“It has to,” Aurora said. “We’re banking a lot on half-plans and hopes.”

“If hope is all we have, then it will have to be enough,” Misraaks said.

“We’re all going to make it through this,” the Guardian said. “I believe in you, every one of you. You’re fighting for the Light alongside Guardians now. We’re fighting for the Great Machine together.”

**Author's Note:**

> drop by my tumblr @lesbianeliksni and talk to me about my kids. i love them. theyre super cute and super gay. there are NOT enough girl fallen ocs!!! more alien lesbians yall!!!!


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